Bart Besamusca
Utrecht University, Faculty of Humanities, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Humanities and Art
Ironically, the currently flourishing study of Arthurian literature in the Low Countries had a false start, as L.G. Visscher’s 1838 publication of Ferguut, the thirteenth-century Middle Dutch rendition of Guillaume le Clerc’s Fergus, was... more
Ironically, the currently flourishing study of Arthurian literature in the Low Countries had a false start, as L.G. Visscher’s 1838 publication of Ferguut, the thirteenth-century Middle Dutch rendition of Guillaume le Clerc’s Fergus, was full of flaws.1 The many inaccuracies in this first complete edition of a Middle Dutch chivalric romance not only confirmed the editor’s self-characterization as an autodidact, they served unintentionally as a teething ring (to borrow Willem Kuiper’s expression) for young philologists.2 One of these critics, W.J.A. Jonckbloet, gaveMiddle Dutch literature the status of a scholarly discipline, by – among other things – writing a three-volume history of Middle Dutch literature and by publishing two groundbreaking editions of Arthurian texts.3
Research Interests: Philology, History, Classics, Literature, Poetry, and 4 moreFlourishing, Romance, Annals, and Flemish
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Over the last decade or so, medievalists have become aware of a phenomenon that we call the dynamics of the codex. This concerns the reconstitution and interaction of texts in medieval miscellanies, which can be observed in particular in... more
Over the last decade or so, medievalists have become aware of a phenomenon that we call the dynamics of the codex. This concerns the reconstitution and interaction of texts in medieval miscellanies, which can be observed in particular in text collections featuring short verse narratives, like lays, fabliaux, fables and Saints’ lives. A case in point is the Old French Chastelaine de Vergi. The subject of this short narrative of around 950 lines is the tragic love affair of a young knight and t..
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Art and Übersetzung
Chretien de Troyes produced a highly original corpus of works that proved to be immensely influential.1 Apart from providing later authors with a stock of Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, and narrative structures, he showed them the... more
Chretien de Troyes produced a highly original corpus of works that proved to be immensely influential.1 Apart from providing later authors with a stock of Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, and narrative structures, he showed them the attractiveness and flexibility of the octosyllabic couplet. This is demonstrated by the impressive number of later Arthurian verse romances. With regard to this medium, however, we should remark that his successors, both French and non-French, explored other forms as well. Whereas many of his continuators stuck to couplets, others preferred to write in prose. In addition, in Britain there were authors composing, for instance, alliterative texts, as well as poets who produced the tail-rhyme stanza, characterized by Rosalind Field as “this jog-trot metric with its tendency to collapse in banality.”2 In the past, scholars have studied all these different forms, their origins, and their reception, mainly focusing on one particular linguistic area. In this article, I would like to broaden the scope of our research somewhat by looking at the use of the different media in medieval Dutch and English Arthurian literature in comparison to French literature. What catches the eye when we look at these forms from this comparative perspective? I will show that authors of both Dutch and English Arthurian narrative fiction had a strong preference for writing verse, and I will offer a speculative explanation of this common feature by incorporating the audiences of their narratives in my argument.
Research Interests:
The popular genre of the chansons de geste came to the Netherlands from France at an early stage. The oldest Middle Dutch texts, like the Roelants l ied, the Renout van Montalbaen and the Limburg Aiol probably date as far back as the... more
The popular genre of the chansons de geste came to the Netherlands from France at an early stage. The oldest Middle Dutch texts, like the Roelants l ied, the Renout van Montalbaen and the Limburg Aiol probably date as far back as the twelfth century. About twenty of the more than a hundred known chansons de geste have come down to us in Dutch. These have not been composed in laisses, but in rhyming couplets and therefore correspond to the French romances in form. Independent of the French epic tradition at the same time that it relies heavily upon it, Dutch chivlaric literature is a striking example of the powerful way in which French culture radiated to the north. In most cases the Middle Dutch texts can be regarded as translated versions, though not literal translations, of the French. The inquiry into the true nature of the relations between the French and Dutch texts has been occupying Dutch specialists for more than a century and a half now.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Item does not contain fulltext5 p
Research Interests: Humanities and Art
Introduction: The Pan-European Approach - Bart Besamusca Perceval on the Margins: A Pan-European Perspective - Norris J Lacy More Bread from Stone: Gauvain as a Figure of Plenitude in the French, Dutch and English Traditions - Lori J.... more
Introduction: The Pan-European Approach - Bart Besamusca Perceval on the Margins: A Pan-European Perspective - Norris J Lacy More Bread from Stone: Gauvain as a Figure of Plenitude in the French, Dutch and English Traditions - Lori J. Walters Artus - ein Fremdkoerper in der Tristantrandition? - Cora Dietl Dinadan Abroad: Tradition and Innovation for a Counter-Hero - Stefano Mula Gringalet as an Epic Character - Marjolein Hogenbirk Consumption and the Construction of Identity in Medieval European Arthurian Romance - Sarah Gordon Lamenting or just Grumbling? Arthur's Nephew Expresses his Discontent - Linda Gowans Youth and Older Age in the Dire Adventure of Chretien's Yvain the Old Swedish Haerra Ivan, Hartmann's Iwein and the Middle English Ywain and GawainEnglish Ywain and Gawain - Joseph M. Sullivan Degrees of Perceptibility: the Narrator in the French Prose Lancelot , and in its German and Dutch Translations - Frank Brandsma Die altnorwegische Pacevals saga im Spannungsfeld ihrer Quelle und der mittelhochdeutschen und mittelenglischen Parzival-Uberlieferung - Susanne Kramaz-Bein Crossing Borders: Text and Image in Arthurian Manuscripts - Martine Meuwese
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Humanities and Art
Research Interests: Literature and Narrative
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Includes a chapter on Middle Dutch
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Starting in spring 2014 authentic medieval Dutch texts have become available on any smartphone or tablet. The new app Vogala was launched in January 2014 and was then quickly downloaded more than 13,000 times in the first six weeks... more
Starting in spring 2014 authentic medieval Dutch texts have become available on any smartphone or tablet. The new app Vogala was launched in January 2014 and was then quickly downloaded more than 13,000 times in the first six weeks alone.1 It features recordings of Middle Dutch masterpieces, read aloud by specialists. Opening one of the fragments shows the Middle Dutch text with a parallel modern Dutch translation. When the sound file is started, the line read aloud lights up in red in both text columns, moving in sync (karaoke-style) with the voice. The listeners hear the medieval Dutch and are able to make sense of it by looking at both the original and the translation.2 Some fifty sound bites were made available in the first year – more are to come – and they range from the Bible translation and texts of the mystical poet Hadewijch to the famous lament for Egidius and chivalric romances, such as Karel ende Elegast (Charlemagne and Elegast) and Walewein by Penninc and Pieter Vostaert. From the latter Arthurian romance, the beginning and the episode of the Sword Bridge were selected. It looks like this in the app:
Research Interests:
... 10 Wij danken voorts iedereen die deelgenomen heeft aan de bijeenkomsten van onze werkgroep of op afstand heeft bijgedragen: Jos Biemans, Joost van Driel, Anneke Mulder-Bakker, Jan Willem Klein, Ad Putter, Robert Stein, Jaap Tigelaar... more
... 10 Wij danken voorts iedereen die deelgenomen heeft aan de bijeenkomsten van onze werkgroep of op afstand heeft bijgedragen: Jos Biemans, Joost van Driel, Anneke Mulder-Bakker, Jan Willem Klein, Ad Putter, Robert Stein, Jaap Tigelaar en Rudolf Kilian Weigand. ...
Research Interests:
The popular genre of the chansons de geste came to the Netherlands from France at an early stage. The oldest Middle Dutch texts, like the Roelants l ied, the Renout van Montalbaen and the Limburg Aiol probably date as far back as the... more
The popular genre of the chansons de geste came to the Netherlands from France at an early stage. The oldest Middle Dutch texts, like the Roelants l ied, the Renout van Montalbaen and the Limburg Aiol probably date as far back as the twelfth century. About twenty of the more than a hundred known chansons de geste have come down to us in Dutch. These have not been composed in laisses, but in rhyming couplets and therefore correspond to the French romances in form. Independent of the French epic tradition at the same time that it relies heavily upon it, Dutch chivlaric literature is a striking example of the powerful way in which French culture radiated to the north. In most cases the Middle Dutch texts can be regarded as translated versions, though not literal translations, of the French. The inquiry into the true nature of the relations between the French and Dutch texts has been occupying Dutch specialists for more than a century and a half now.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The NWO-funded research project ‘The Multilingual Dynamics of the Literary Culture of Medieval Flanders, c. 1200- c. 1500’ is hosting a series of e-workshops on the topic of ‘Multilingual Literary Cultures in the Middle Ages’. Each... more
The NWO-funded research project ‘The Multilingual Dynamics of the Literary Culture of Medieval Flanders, c. 1200- c. 1500’ is hosting a series of e-workshops on the topic of ‘Multilingual Literary Cultures in the Middle Ages’. Each meeting will be devoted to a theme in multilingualism, approached from a particular disciplinary perspective. They will take place on Zoom every two weeks and will consist of a short, informal presentation (max. 20 minutes), an invited response (max. 10 minutes), and a general discussion designed to invite multidisciplinary perspectives (max. 20 minutes). The sessions will be scheduled on Thursdays, starting at 4 p.m. (CET).
Register for these e-workshops by sending an email to multilingualdynamics@gmail.com
More information on the project website: HTTPS://MULTILINGUALDYNAMICS.SITES.UU.NL/
Register for these e-workshops by sending an email to multilingualdynamics@gmail.com
More information on the project website: HTTPS://MULTILINGUALDYNAMICS.SITES.UU.NL/
