Magical Artifice and Artificial History in the 'Roman de Perceforest'

The 'Roman de Perceforest' contains fascinating and original portrayals of magical artifice, which have intrigued scholars of Old French for many decades. It is also a peculiarly overt project of 'artificial' history, filling in a lacuna of Arthurian genealogy: King Perceforest's dynasty in pagan Britain. Under the umbrella of 'artifice', this thesis seeks to understand and explore the author's sense of his own artifice - that of writing a fictional history - through the text's portrayals of magical artifice, and artifice in other forms. Magic was a polemical topic in the late middle ages, and the matter of fiction appears similarly thought-provoking!

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Atkin, Timothy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Huot, Sylvia

• Perceforest
• Magic
• Fiction
• Old French
• artifice

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/15abfb21-c177-4a90-a090-3e22cf7823f5/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.72060

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/324605