Anastasia F. Kifishina, 3 rd year Bachelor’s Student, School of Philological Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), Pokrovksy Bulvar, 11, 109028, Moscow, Russia.
The subject of the article is the prologues to “Roman de Brut” – a poetical chronicle of British history written in the twelfth century by the Norman poet Wace – and to the Middle English translation of this text – “Brut” made by Layamon in the early thirteenth century. The analysis of the prologue to “Roman de Brut” aims to find out how Wace uses Cicero’s rhetorical concepts benevolentia (benevolence of the audience), attention (attention of the audience) and docilitas (receptivity of the audience) which form the exordium (introduction). Wace’s text is put into the tradition of medieval prologues which allows to make a conclusion about the extent to which it meets expectations of an introduction to a historical text. The prologue to “Brut” is viewed as an example of the so-called Aristotelian prologue and is compared with Wace’s text to identify similarities and differences. The study also analyses the topoi used in the prologues of both authors, the role of sources in their texts, and their perception of history and the concept of “truth”. The workaims to designatewhere Layamon follows his predecessor Wace and where he departs from him.
prologue; Wace; Layamon; “Roman de Brut”; “Brut”; topos.
10.12.2024
30.01.2025
Kifishina, A.F. “Medieval Prologue: From Wace to Layamon”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 2(68), 2025, pp. 128–146. (In Russ.)
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