Epistolary Documents in High-Medieval History Writing
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Epistolary Documents in High-Medieval History Writing. / Bainton, Henry.
In: Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literature, Vol. 4, 2017.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Epistolary Documents in High-Medieval History Writing
AU - Bainton, Henry
N1 - This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This article focuses on the way history-writers in the reign of King Henry II (Kingof England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, d. 1189) quoted documents in their histories. Although scholars have often identified documentary quotation as the most distinctive feature of history-writing from this period, I argue here that the practice of quoting documents has not been properly assessed from a rhetorical perspective. Focusing on epistolary documents in the histories written by Roger of Howden, Ralph de Diceto and Stephen of Rouen, I suggest that scholarship on these texts has distinguished between ‘document’ and ‘narrative’ too sharply. My argument, rather, is that epistolary documents functioned as narrative intertexts; they were not simply truth claims deployed to authenticate a history-writer’s own narrative. The corollary to this is that scholarship on these texts needs to negotiate the potentially fictive nature of documentary intertexts, just as it has long negotiated the potentially fictive nature of the historiographical discourse that frames them.
AB - This article focuses on the way history-writers in the reign of King Henry II (Kingof England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, d. 1189) quoted documents in their histories. Although scholars have often identified documentary quotation as the most distinctive feature of history-writing from this period, I argue here that the practice of quoting documents has not been properly assessed from a rhetorical perspective. Focusing on epistolary documents in the histories written by Roger of Howden, Ralph de Diceto and Stephen of Rouen, I suggest that scholarship on these texts has distinguished between ‘document’ and ‘narrative’ too sharply. My argument, rather, is that epistolary documents functioned as narrative intertexts; they were not simply truth claims deployed to authenticate a history-writer’s own narrative. The corollary to this is that scholarship on these texts needs to negotiate the potentially fictive nature of documentary intertexts, just as it has long negotiated the potentially fictive nature of the historiographical discourse that frames them.
U2 - 10.13130/interfaces-04-03
DO - 10.13130/interfaces-04-03
M3 - Journal article
VL - 4
JO - Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literature
JF - Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literature
SN - 2421-5503
ER -
ID: 241994172