The Medieval Frame Narrative

Research Blog

           This blog will begin to establish what a frame-narrative (also referred to as "frame story," "frame tale," or simply "frame.") is made of, analyze the influences upon the medieval frame narrative by pre-medieval texts, and approach contentions as to what belongs within the definition of a frame-narrative.

What is a frame narrative?

          At first glance, a frame-narrative may be simply described as a group of stories within a story, but the genre proves to be a little more complex. In her article, "What's in a Frame?: The Medieval Textualization of Traditional Storytelling" Bonnie D. Irwin breaks down what a frame-narrative is in simple terms; she writes, "A frame tale is not simply an anthology of stories. Rather, it is a fictional narrative... for the purpose of presenting other narratives” (28), with the important distinction being that the larger fictional narrative, or the frame, is not the focus. The frame itself is a means to introduce the stories within, referred to as "interpolated stories" by Irwin, which become the heart of the matter. Irwin emphasizes the measure of strength of both levels of narrative, relating that the frame itself is weak and cannot stand without support from the interpolated stories, whereas the interpolated stories can exist on their own, or even appear in another context (28).

           Another factor of the frame-narrative is that “the difference… between the framing level and tale level generates some kind of meaning” (Weisberg 45). This might seem obvious, but considering the weakness of the frame itself compared to the interpolated stories, it’s an important distinction. Here Weisberg’s suggestion echoes Irwin’s assertion that the frame-narrative is not an anthology, that the frame itself is not an arbitrary format in which to collect stories, but an important context with which to relate the interpolated stories. This does not, however, contradict the fact that interpolated stories can still exist on their own or in other frames, but highlights the importance of the author’s mark on these stories within the meaning he generates between the framing level and the tale level.

           Though not an explicit rule in terms of genre, the frame-narrative's ties to oral storytelling are a significant part of both its origin and its success. The genre originated in India, the earliest known work of which is Panchatantra, first compiled between third and fifth century CE, but whose interpolated stories are believed to have already been ancient by then (Ashliman; "Panchatantra"). Those stories originated as a part of the oral tradition, and traveled west through multiple translations (Ashliman), very likely influencing such medieval works as One thousand and One Nights (Naithani 272) and Boccaccio's The Decameron (Boccaccio lix). The importance of the oral tradition is also apparent within the texts themselves, the characters within the frames of these stories become oral narrators of the interpolated stories, and suggest an oral origin of the tales themselves (Irwin 28, 39). As such, we can learn from frame-narratives about the type of stories and folktales which existed in oral mediums; frame-narratives can tell us about the values, the sense of humor, and even other prevalent contemporary genres.

           One of the genres that comes across most frequently in medieval frame-narratives is the French fabliaux, seen in both the Canterbury Tales and The Decameron (Boccaccio lxii). The fabliaux is a story which provides us with a sense of the rude and crude humor that existed in the middle ages, and its performance by minstrels ties back to the importance of the oral tradition in the genre. Its presence in European medieval frame-narratives is one of the contemporary elements of literature that distinguishes the genre from its ancestors.

Works Cited

(Sorry if the formatting is weird, I don't know how to work this gosh darned internet thing.)

Ashliman, D. L. "The Panchatantra." University of Pittsburgh. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Boccaccio, Giovanni, and G. H. McWilliam. The Decameron. London: New York, 1995. Print. "Frame Story." Wikipedia. Web. 23 Sept. 2015. Irwin, Bonnie D. “What’s in a Frame?: The Medieval Textualization of Traditional Storytelling.”
Oral Tradition 10.1 (1995): 27-53. Web. Naithani, Sadhana. "The Teacher and the Taught: Structures and Meaning in the "Arabian Nights"
and the "Panchatantra"" Marvels & Tales 18.2 (2004): 272-85. JSTOR. Web. 5 Nov.
2015. "Panchatantra." Wikipedia. Web. 05 Nov. 2015. Pearsall, Derek Albert. The Canterbury Tales. London: Routledge, 1993. Print. "The Thousand and One Nights." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web.
05 Nov. 2015. Weisberg, David. "Telling Stories about Constance: Framing and Narrative Strategy in the
"Canterbury Tales"" Penn State University Press 27.1 (1992): 45-64. JSTOR. Web. 24
Sept. 2015.

The Structure of the Fable

The Fable so far...

A fable is essentially a very short story with an explicitly expressed message. The first known author or orator that created the tradition of the fable was Aesop, a Greek storyteller/author who spread fables such as “The Tortoise and the Hare” by word of mouth (Rourke 23). Besides the lesson embedded within the fable, another thing that is essential to the specific structure of the medieval fable is that most fables written in the Middle Ages were fables about animal interaction. Going more in depth with the structure of the fable, however, the simple layout proves that what is lacking within the fable is just as important as the elements within the fable.   

Many authors including Rourke, Needler, and Spiegel talk about the things that are lacking in fables as a way of highlighting their importance in making fables stand out. Lee Rourke mentions in his book A Brief History of Fables that fables are “simple” and that fables do not “solely concentrate on simple things...their sheer range and scope is vast” (Rourke 23). Fables need a simple, minimalist structure in order to be a fable. This means that Harriet Spiegel’s comment about how the fable cannot have “historical people or events figure in them [fables],” reinforces just how important simplicity is to the structure of fables (Introduction 6). Lastly, Howard Needler mentions that the fable, unlike popular read and versed genres, does not include: “characterization, motivation, distinctions of foreground and background, circumstantial detail, narrative detail” and other things that larger literary works may have, that fables do not (The Animal Fable Among Other Medieval Literary Genres 428). The things that fables do not incorporate in their structure makes fables what they are.

Variations of the structure of fables mostly occur through the types themes and the message of the fable. For the most part the message of the story is expressed at the end of the story (Spiegel 6). This type of message and its placement is called an epimythium. Another way in which the message of fables can be placed is at the beginning of the fable; a message that begins fables is called a promythium. Lastly, the message can also be embedded within fables. This type of message is called an endomythium (Rourke 25-27). Sometimes there can be more than one message of fables and according to Rourke, the messages that are not clearly written out, which readers interpret for themselves, are presented as a contradiction to the actual message of fables (27). This type of structure of the message of fables helps audiences to see the morality of some messages to teach audiences that “not everything you hear is considered to be true” (Rourke 27). Understanding the different placements of the message of fables is just as important in understanding the abundance of themes that are dispersed within fables.

A common way authors make fables their own is by creating fables that twist the kind of themes typically interpreted in fables into a way that reflects their opinions on society and the world. According to Ruth Maharg, the themes of Aesop’s fables are “loyalty, patience, moderation, and industry” (The Modern Fable: Jame's Thurber's Social Criticisms 72). She also states that Aesop “warns against greed and pride” (Maharg 72).  Maharg compares Aesop’s fables to a modern author’s version of the fable, and that author’s different type of structure, focusing on the themes and tone of fables (72). The author she chooses creates fables that are more “humorous and fantastic”. The author creates themes that focus more on war, specifically World War II and destruction, which Aesop’s themes are more lighthearted and less about war (72). The themes that Maharg’s example writes are just one example of how the varieties of themes within fables are important in understanding the structure of fables in general.

Another author that incorporates themes that differentiate from Aesop’s fables is Marie de France. Speigel talks about Marie de France’s version of the fable and the types of themes that Marie de France weaves into her writing. Though Aesop was the possible originator of the fable before the Middle Ages, Marie de France perfected the fable for the Middle Ages. According to Speigel, Marie’s fables focused on feudal social structure and her ideas of justice (Introduction 9-10).  Marie also differentiates herself from the Aesopian fable by incorporating more human characters within her fables (Spiegel 6). Most of the characters that Marie incorporates focus on women’s roles in society, highlighting childbirth and presents women as the “clever tricksters playing a good joke on their silly husbands” (9-11). Marie’s variation on the themes and structure of the fable show the wide range of creativity of the fable.

So far with the research I have presented here, I have focused on the different types of themes and messages of the fable. I plan to go further in depth with the structure by getting more authors together that have different views of the structure of fables. I will specifically focus on a piece by Berel Lang, who says that the structure of fables relies on desire. I hope to also include how the structure has changed within today's versions of the fable which include flash fiction stories, and other types of works that i have yet to really look into. I will also add more when it comes to the manuscripts of the genre.

Works Cited

Maharg, Ruth A. "The Modern Fable: Jame's Thurber's Social Criticisms." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 9.2 (1984): 72-73. Journal Article. 

Needler, Howard. "The Animal Fable Among Other Medieval Literary Genres." New Literary History 22.2 (1991): 423-439. Journal Article. 

Rourke, Lee. A Brief History of Fables: From Aesop to Flash Fiction. Bulstrode Street, London, UK: Hesperus Press Limited, 2011. Print.

Spiegel, Harriet. "Introduction." France, Marie de. Fables. Toronto, Canada: Universtiy of Toronto Press, 1987. Print. 

The Frisky, Fabulous; Fabliaux

The Frisky, Fabulous; Fabliaux

(Research Blog)

By: Vanessa Valerie Giedosh 

Who, What, Where, When?

What exactly is a Fabliau and why is it so fascinating? In a nutshell, a Fabliau is a delightfully dirty comic or satire. They were short narratives that told a perverted story depicting both a mix erotic and violent scenes. Who started it? Well, that would be the French sometime ca. 1150. The Fabliau was the most popular in France during the 12^th and 13^th centuries. Then in the 14^th century it became popular in England.

Elements of a Fabliau

• “Most fabliaux are short, focus on plot at the expense of characterization, and rely on town or country settings, usually domestic. The humor of the fabliau normally derives from a bizarre but logical chain of cause and effect, the more elaborate the better, engineered through act or acts of deception” (Wright, Glenn. "The Fabliau Ethos in the French and English Octavian Romances." Modern Philology 102.4 (2005): 483 Web.)

• There is often a quest to obtain or defend one’s money or property.

• They tend to be in an octosyllabic verse (a line of verse with eight syllables) and about 300 to 400 lines long.

• There is a lot of focus on wordplay and puns.

Performance of a Fabliau

In the early days of the Fabliau, minstrels would write them anonymously and perform them. However, in today’s society, people only tend to think of literature in the textual sense. Therefore when one reads a Fabliau, they only see the tale playing out inside their mind. But it is far more likely that a Fabliau would have been performed live in front of an audience much like a play would have been. The performer would have told the story by changing their tone of voice, delivering just the right facial expression, or shocking the crowd with a surprising hand gesture. Perhaps the story tellers could have even had the crowd of onlookers get involved and asked for volunteers – imagine the possibilities! The performer would have fed off the energy of the observers and their reactions may have dictated how they chose to tell the Fabliau.

The First Fabliau

The very first recorded Fabliau dates back to 1159 and was known as Richeut by Anonymous. It is unique in the fact that it does not use octosyllables, but instead a tailrhyme strophe. The story is about a prostitute Richeut and her son Samson, who boasts that no woman could ever make a fool out of him. Over a time span of twelve years, Samson goes off on his own where he gambles and treats women like dirt. When he returns home, his mother decides to teach him a lesson by setting him up with her servant, Herselot. Samson believes the servant to be a virgin, but she is not. His mother has a bunch of men go in while her son is with Herselot to beat him up, but goes in to stop them to look like the hero. Therefore, in the end she has proven Samson’s claim from twelve years ago wrong since he has been duped by his own mother.

However, the very first known writer of the Fabliau is a man named Rutebeuf who lived in the 13^th century.

Famous Fabliaux

I’m working on how these three Fabliaux are all connected and share the same roots. Jean Bodel ( c. 1165 – c. 1210 ) appears to have inspired both Giovanni Boccaccio ( 1313 -1375 ) and Geoffrey Chaucer ( c. 1343 – 1400 ). These are often referred to as “cradle-trick” tales because they involve a wife getting into the wrong bed with another man because the cradle has been moved. Aside from these three Fabliaux, there are a few more similar tales as well. Which makes this type of Fabliaux a popular one. There must be something entertaining or interesting about a woman who is easily duped by a baby’s cradle being moved in front of another bed. This is something that is likely worth digging into given the amount of stories about the subject with so many versions by famous authors of Fabliaux.

• Gombert et les deus Clers by Jean Bodel
• Canterbury Tales/The Reeve’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer
• Decameron/ Sixth Story of the Ninth Day by Giovanni Boccaccio

Women in Fabliaux

I’ve decided to include a full section on women in Fabliaux after reading the feedback on my bibliography; seems silly not to given how they are treated in a majority of the tales. With that being said, they are often given positions of power in Fabliaux. This may have been because so many of the early stories were written anonymously and people were allowed to create whatever characters they wanted in whatever situations they desired. That’s just my educated guess, but I still have plenty of research to sift through. Nonetheless, women were a major part of the Fabliau. They were depicted as the foolish housewives that needed to be tamed, the intelligent prostitutes, and the property that needed to be claimed. Women are so interwoven in what makes a Fabliau a Fabliau that I’m surprised I even considered not including this section in my paper. 

The Medieval Epic

 Research Blog 
     The purpose of this blog is so I can begin to describe to my audience what a Medieval Epic is. I plan on breaking down the definition, origin, history, epic stories, influences, and any other information I can come across in an attempt on giving my audience a clear understanding. Following this paragraph is a work in progress, think it more as an excerpt from what my completed paper will contain. Feed back is welcomed.    
What is an epic?    
     According to A Handbook to Literature, Twelfth Edition, “An epic is a long narrative poem in evaluated style presenting characters of high position in adventures, forming an organic whole through their relation to a central heroic figure and through their development of episodes important to the history of a nation or race” (175). A Handbook to Literature, Twelfth Edition explains that legend has it that there is one soul person responsible for the origin of the epic. Single works were found and over time, with the help of extensive research, it seems that these found works have the same writing styles and there is a possibility of all the found works fitting together.  A Handbook to Literature, Twelfth Edition states that “epics without certain authorship are called folk epics, whether one believes in a folk or a single-authorship theory of origin” (176).
Format

     A Handbook to Literature, Twelfth Edition provides a list of the certain characteristics shared by most epics, they include; “(1) The hero is of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance; (2) the setting is vast, covering great nations, the world, or the universe; (3) the action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage; (4) supernatural forces-gods, angels, and demons- interest themselves in the action; (5) a style of sustained elevation is used; and (6) the poet retains a measure of objectivity. To these general characteristics (some of which are omitted from a particular epics) should be added to a list of common devices employed by most epic poets: The poet opens by stating a theme, invoking a Muse, and beginning the narrative in medias res- in the middle parts of the thing-giving the necessary exposition later; the poet includes catalogs of warriors, ships, armies; there are extended formal speeches by the main characters; and the poet makes frequent use of the epic simile. (176)

Influences
     I previously mentioned that the origin of the epic stems back to an unknown author and his recovered work. Today, that work, known as Beowulf ,is still extensively studied. Robert E. Bjork and Anita Obermeier state in A Beowulf Handbook, “Suggestions from when Beowulf was composed range from 340 to 1025, with ca. 515-530 and 1000 being almost universally acknowledged as the possible extremes. An early consensus favored ca. 650- 800, but current thinking is balanced between roughly this view and the late ninth to early tenth centuries” (13).

     The two authors also go on to discuss how after all of these years and research, historians still cannot determine who this author is and where he is from. It is assumed the author is a he based on gender roles of the time period. The time period also suggests that the author had to be some type cleric. This assumption comes from the idea that in the author’s time period, the general public was not educated and very few, aside from people who worked for the Catholic Church could read and write. Then again, there is still not enough evidence to prove this so the author, in fact, could have been a layperson. Histories also can’t determine what type of audience Beowulf was intended for. When it comes to the origins of the epic, we are left with more questions than answers and a book that is still dissected and studied, with new meanings or methods coming out frequently. 

     One of the nagging problems of not knowing the author, audience, or the date of Beowulf is trying to figure out if this work was influenced by anything in history or other writings from time periods around the writing of Beowulf. Theodore M. Andersson, in Early Epic Scenery: Homer, Virgil, and the Medieval Legacy, states that “the dating of Beowulf is not certain, but scholarly consensus places it in the eighth century. If this dating is correct, Beowulf should have been considered before the ninth-century poems” (145). Although, Andersson goes on to claim that “Virgilian influences in Beowulf has been long standing and inconclusive. There is too much evidence to ignore and too little to decide the case to everyone’s satisfaction” (145). Virgilian influences seem to be noticeable in Beowulf when compared to the Aenied. The Aeneid is an epic Latin poem, written by Virgil somewhere around the 20 BCs. Andersson believes that “Beowulf showed a special scenic affinity to the Aeneid, a manner of visualizing epic action that is foreign to Germanic poetry and comprehensible only with reference to Virgil” (5). Andersson goes on to discuss how one way scholars broke down the possibility of influence was through the use of the scenery. It came down to scenery because both stories seem to follow the same epic format, but Virgil has a particular way of using the scenery in his story, which later became a contribution to the epic format itself. Although scholars feel that his writing, at this time, was to isolated to be able to reach out to other authors and give any influence to their writing methods.
     Beowulf was believed to still have been in the process of being written somewhere during the same period as Aeneid and that is just enough of a reason for people, like Andersson to hint at the possibility of Virgilian influence in thought and writing. Never the less, as I began to explain, the theory strongly works in the favor of Beowulf not being influenced because what Andersson claims to be, “the scarcity of scenic image in the work confirmed that Virgil’s manipulation of space was unique poetic technique bequeathed to a specifically Virgilian school and not a ubiquitous phenomenon to be found at random in narrative poetry”(6). There also seems to be more scenery was able to be translated in some parts of Beowulf, better than to others. The ending chapters seem to appeal to this idea of scenic affinity more than the beginning chapters, but for all we know there could have been an equal amount. It just might have been lost in translation. This is what led scholars to believe that, like it has been previously stated, there was a similar though influence during the time. The unknown author was not a student under Virgil, he is missing to many Virgilian signatures. A similar point of influence would be easier to prove if there was more information on the unknown author. 
    

Work Cited

Andersson, Theodore. Early Epic Scenery: Homer, Virgil, and the Medieval Legacy. Ithaca, New York: Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., 1976. Print.

Bjork, Robert and Niles, John. A Beowulf Handbook. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. Print

Harmon, William. A Handbook to Literature. Twelfth Ed. New York: Pearson Education, Inc,  2012. Print.

Medieval Romance

To call the romance the quintessential genre of the Middle Ages would not, be unreasonable.  Many of the images still associated with medievalism to this day seem to spring from romance: the knight in shining armor, the well-defended castle, the wispy but beautiful maiden, the quest, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  For its original audience, the romance was just as emblematic, as the genre composed some of the most popular reading material of the age, both in terms of audience and in terms of output.  It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that the term “romance” both wants desperately for precise definition and eludes it.  The concept is so important and so widely discussed that it is, of course, required that everyone know what exactly is being talked about.  However, because so many diverse texts can be called “romance,” a precise and detailed definition that manages both to describe the genre across hundreds of years, a wide array of different forms and manners of composition, and many countries and to satisfy everyone who has sunk their teeth into the subject matter remains elusive.  Within this one undergraduate course on medieval literature, we have considered elements of romance in lais, in lyrics, in a dream vision, and in alliterative verse, proving that the romance can wear many different faces.

Following its birth in France, the medieval romance mutated across time and culture, so that it is possible to speak of the French romance, the English romance, the Italian romance, the German romance, and so on as interrelated but distinguishable from one another.  Within these categories, further distinctions can be made, such as that between romances for a wide audience which might have been performed publically, and those that were intended for an allegedly more sophisticated, literate, urban audience (Psaki 204).  The result is that definitions can be so broad as to be unhelpful, but increased specificity tends to overlook an important element present across works, or to exclude a text that clearly belongs with romance.  These problems are exacerbated by the vagueness of the word ‘romance’ in when it was written; a text in Middle English announcing itself as a romance may be speaking to its literary characteristics, or to its source in a Romance language (336).  For latter day scholars, the abundance is both tantalizing and tricky, which explains why, in addition to close readings of the many texts, scholarly discourse about romance seems to be dominated by attempts to define and describe romance in all of its particulars, such that Yin Liu begins her argument by telling the reader: “since romance has proven itself inexhaustibly and infinitely expandable, I make no apologies for taking yet another run at the meaning of ‘Middle English romance’ as a generic term” (335).  (And she speaks only of the Middle English romance, without touching upon any of the other national traditions going on at the time.) 

Liu does, however, provide a useful framework for discussing Middle English romance (and, most likely, any genre as diverse as this one): “not to be definitive but descriptive” (335).  A definitive and entirely satisfying answer is likely to remain elusive, but this does not mean that “romance” is an arbitrary and meaningless category.  Rather, the genre might be compared to a staple foodstuff like bread.  Bread comes in myriad varieties – it may be soft, pillowy, crusty, or flaky; made of wheat, barley, or rye; filled with nuts, raisins, cheeses, and any other number of things that people dream up because it sounds good to eat.  But at its core, bread is comprised of flour, water, and yeast, and even the most innovative of loaves still maintains its breadness.  Medieval romance is much the same, variable, and yet recognizable.  The purpose of this paper is to attempt to describe the flour, water, and yeast of the genre, with a sprinkling of the flaky crusts and the raisins. 

Of these basic features, romance’s most significant is that of values.  The genre has been discussed in the context of value since early scholarship on the subject, when even those who sat down to study the stuff questioned whether or not most medieval romance had any literary value.  The answer, broadly speaking, was “no, not really, but let’s study it anyway.”  In one of the earliest works of comprehensive criticism, A.B. Taylor writes that, “The people of the Middle Ages revered historical truth, but were very easily duped… like uneducated people of today were easily satisfied” (122), indicative of a patronizing attitude towards the men and women who consumed these works.  They were foolish and uneducated – if they’d known better, they would have been reading higher quality stuff.  This attitude can also be found in Derek Pearsall’s seminal work, “The Development of Middle English Romance,” which calls examples of the genre “hack work” (## get article from ILLiad again), and dismisses romance generally as low quality.  From a modern aesthetic, many examples seem to be found lacking.  This aesthetic value judgment was not shared by the medieval romance’s original readers, who gobbled it up in all its diverse forms.  Indeed, for these readers, the aesthetic value judgment that predominates the early scholarship on the genre may not have been simply wrong, but quite beside the point.

For medieval readers, romance provided a different kind of value: that of examining their own values systems.  As a genre, the romance is often characterized as a conservative one.  Most examples uphold a system of beliefs and codify practices.  Even when a text, such as Marie de France’s “Lanval,” seems to turn some medieval values on their head, these readings vibrate within the contained system of the conservative world of knights and courtly behavior, not openly and deliberately decrying the system as wrong.  Roberta L. Krueger describes how, “[n]ovel male and female patrons were evidently eager to listen to stories in which their own ideals and anxieties were reflected” (3) in the texts they commissioned.  If medieval readership felt anxiety about the potential of female power to disrupt the patriarchal status quo, a piece like “Lanval” allows for safe space to explore this fear, where all can ultimately be righted in the world. 

I have not had as much time as I would have liked to dedicate to developing this.  (Also, I find that I have to start at the beginning of my work and work to the end and then edit, hence this not containing more “meaty” sections of my paper.)  However, after this weekend, I am going to have a lot more time to dedicate to this.  I am fairly happy with the shape that it’s taking thus far, but frankly I’m not sure if my bread metaphor is silly or not, though I included it because I keep thinking about it as I read these things.  Right now, I feel like I am most struggling with imagining how I am going to incorporate the point of romance’s popularity – it doesn’t feel like a “feature” of the genre as such, but seems important to me.  I might try to scatter it in throughout, I’m not sure.  (You might note that I am missing a page number for a quote... The one I forgot to record that I knew I wanted to use was, of course, in the article that disappeared from ILLiad and I didn't realize it.  But I have requested it again.)

Works Cited

Krueger, Roberta L., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Web.

Liu, Yin. “Middle English Romance as Prototype Genre.” The Chaucer Review 40.4 (2006): 335-353. Web.

Pearsall, Derek. “The Development of Middle English Romance.” Mediaeval Studies 27 (1965): 91-116. Web.

Psaki, F. Regina. “Chivalry and Medieval Italian Romance.” Krueger 203-217. Web.

Taylor, A.B. An Introduction to Medieval Romance. 1930. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc, 1969. Print.