Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-285) and index.
Contents
Defining twelfth-century fictionality -- Vernacular fiction in the twelfth century -- Fictive orality -- Fiction and Wolfram's Parzival -- Fiction and structure -- Fiction and history.
Summary
Until the twelfth century writing in the western vernaculars dealt almost exclusively with religious, historical and factual themes, but the second half of the twelfth century saw the emergence of a new genre consciously conceived as fictional, the romance. Dennis Green explores how and why this shift occurred.