Interpreting Nightingales: Gender, Class and HistoriesA&C Black, 1997 M07 1 - 299 pages The poetic nightingale is so familiar it seems hardly to merit serious attention. Yet its ubiquity is significant, suggesting associations with erotic love, pathos and art that cross culture and history. This book examines the different nightingales of European literature, starting with the Greek myth of Philomela, the raped girl, silenced by having her tongue cut out, and then transformed into the bird whose name means poet, poetry and nightingale simultaneously. Moving from the classical to the Christian worlds, Jeni Williams discusses nightingales and nature in the early church and sees the emergence of the figure as an emotive emblem of the aristocracy in mediaeval vernacular debate poetry. Her final chapters use the nightingale and the myth to examine Elizabeth Barrett Browning's struggle for an active female voice in Victorian poetry. |
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Page 11
... myth of Philomela , the raped and silenced girl who finds a new voice through art ; first through physically weaving her story , and then through the woven notes of song after her trans- formation into a nightingale , a bird whose Greek ...
... myth of Philomela , the raped and silenced girl who finds a new voice through art ; first through physically weaving her story , and then through the woven notes of song after her trans- formation into a nightingale , a bird whose Greek ...
Page 12
... myth of Philomela , another , equally significant literary role accompanies them . A.R. Chandler notes its age — ' the nightingale plays a more important role in European literature than any other bird . Ref- erences to it are found all ...
... myth of Philomela , another , equally significant literary role accompanies them . A.R. Chandler notes its age — ' the nightingale plays a more important role in European literature than any other bird . Ref- erences to it are found all ...
Page 13
... Philomela myth in which the girl's sister is transformed into the nightingale and mourns her dead child , killed and dismembered in cannibalistic revenge for her husband's treachery , he questions , ' Why else should a highly literary ...
... Philomela myth in which the girl's sister is transformed into the nightingale and mourns her dead child , killed and dismembered in cannibalistic revenge for her husband's treachery , he questions , ' Why else should a highly literary ...
Page 16
... Philomela , again and Tereus travels to Athens to bring her back . But on the homeward journey , he takes her to a ... myth of Philomela haunts classical Greek literature , to the extent that ,. CHAPTER 1 Sorrowful Weaving ...
... Philomela , again and Tereus travels to Athens to bring her back . But on the homeward journey , he takes her to a ... myth of Philomela haunts classical Greek literature , to the extent that ,. CHAPTER 1 Sorrowful Weaving ...
Page 17
... myth suggests why it should have been so popular in Classical litera- ture — and why it might continue to be so ... Philomela myth fits into the latter pattern by emphasizing the power of passion , violence and song . In particular ...
... myth suggests why it should have been so popular in Classical litera- ture — and why it might continue to be so ... Philomela myth fits into the latter pattern by emphasizing the power of passion , violence and song . In particular ...
Contents
| 7 | |
| 9 | |
| 16 | |
| 34 | |
Medieval English Nightingales | 75 |
Victorian Nightingales | 142 |
Barrett Browning among the Nightingales | 169 |
Nightingales in Classical Literature | 226 |
Christian Latin Poems | 236 |
Notes | 247 |
Bibliography | 284 |
Index of Names and Titles | 294 |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Alcuin ambiguity appears argument aristocratic Aristophanes associated attempts Aurora Leigh Barrett Browning Barrett Browning's Bianca bird boundaries C.S. Lewis Caterina century chapter Chaucer chivalric Christian classical conflict courtly critics Cuckoo cultural daisy debate defined denies desire discussion disruption Elizabeth Barrett Browning emblematic English erotic expressed female feminine figure Floure Flower Fulbert of Chartres gender genre Greek harmony hoopoe human identity ideology individual ingale Knight's Tale Lady language Latin Leaf Leaf company literature Lost Bower lover lyric male masculine medieval medieval literature Mermin narrator natural world night nightin nightingale Ovid passion past patterns Patterson Paulus Albarus Pecham's Philomela myth poem poet poetic voice points political Procne reader references relation religious repression role secular sexual significance silence social song Sophocles space speak stanza structure symbolic Tereus textual Thrush tion trans University Press verse victim Victorian poetry woman women writing