Literary Hybrids: Indeterminacy in Medieval and Modern French Narrative

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Taylor & Francis, Dec 11, 2003 - Literary Criticism - 224 pages
Much like the fantastic marginalia of medieval illuminated manuscripts, medieval and modern hybrid characters - including werewolves, serpent women and wild men - function as a frame, critiquing the discourse that run through their texts. In Literary Hybrids, Erika Hess provides a close reading of one such hybrid - the female cross-dresser in thirteenth century French romance - examining the interplay between physical and narrative ambiguity. Hess argues that the hybrid figure in medieval and contemporary French literature challenges the traditionally accepted natural order, upsets rational thinking and underscores a concern with totalising discourses or perspectives.

About the author (2003)

Erika E. Hess received her Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Oregon in 2000. She currently teaches French at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

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