Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Dream Literature
Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and his use of a dream vision or dream allegory greatly influenced medieval literature. King James I used this format for his Kingis Quair. However, the love relationship in the work was focused on a personal marital relationship, quite different than the idealized love found in most other works due to such poets as Guillaume de Lorris. His work also was predominantly autobiographical not only because of his descriptions of his relationship with his wife, but also his imprisonment by the English.
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2 comments:
Is his writing being more autobiographical unusual for the time? I know that others wrote memoirs (one of my favorites is Margery Kemp's) but they don't necessarily feature dream allegory. Is the combination of the two different? Dante's Inferno features idealized romantic love for the protagonist as does Don Quixote but neither of these is autobiographical although they both have dream allegories in them.
King James I lived at a time when autobiographical writing was making its first significant mark in literature. This was not necessarily new, though, as much of the prison literature gave the authors time to be reflective (what else is there to write about in a limited environment?).
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