Radial Categories and the Central Romance
Abstract
Past studies of the genre of romance have disagreed on what the essential features of romance are, and using essential features to draw boundaries around the genre has provoked frustration. Following the work of George Lakoff on radial categories, this study instead seeks for a medieval understanding of the central romance. The category of romances will be larger than merely the central ones through the principle of chaining, and no single characteristic needs to be shared by all romances, but central romances establish the domains of experience that are the concern of other members of the genre. The medieval rhetorical trope of cataloguing offers a way of establishing the central members of the genre for readers of the fourteenth century.
Downloads
Published
2005-01-01
How to Cite
Furrow, M. (2005). Radial Categories and the Central Romance. Florilegium, 22, 121–140. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/flor/article/view/12519
Issue
Section
Articles
