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 12
... references to the 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 ...
... references to the 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 ...
Page 14
... form of silencing differs in terms of overt and covert coercion . A more direct reference seems indicated in The World according to Garp a text which significantly examines the American polariza- tion. 14 Interpreting Nightingales.
... form of silencing differs in terms of overt and covert coercion . A more direct reference seems indicated in The World according to Garp a text which significantly examines the American polariza- tion. 14 Interpreting Nightingales.
Page 22
... connection : ... references to weaving in Greek literature have an immediacy and vividness which we should not overlook ... weaving was closely linked in the Greek mind to singing , and ... 22 Interpreting Nightingales.
... connection : ... references to weaving in Greek literature have an immediacy and vividness which we should not overlook ... weaving was closely linked in the Greek mind to singing , and ... 22 Interpreting Nightingales.
Page 24
... references to the melancholy lay of aedonis or aedon , and to the lament for Itys ... [ are ] for the most part , veiled allusions to the worship of Adonis or Atys ... the mysterious and melancholy ritual of the departing year when ...
... references to the melancholy lay of aedonis or aedon , and to the lament for Itys ... [ are ] for the most part , veiled allusions to the worship of Adonis or Atys ... the mysterious and melancholy ritual of the departing year when ...
Page 26
... references to the bird ( also in The Suppliant Maidens ) ( see p . 228 ) , and with the later references in Euripides ' Hecuba ( see p . 229 ) and Helen ( see p . 229 ) , the Philomela myth seems to lie beneath the surface plot ...
... references to the bird ( also in The Suppliant Maidens ) ( see p . 228 ) , and with the later references in Euripides ' Hecuba ( see p . 229 ) and Helen ( see p . 229 ) , the Philomela myth seems to lie beneath the surface plot ...
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