Literary Hybrids

Download or read book Literary Hybrids written by Erika E. Hess and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-08-02 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much like the fantastic marginalia of medieval illuminated manuscripts, medieval and modern hybrid characters-including werewolves, serpent women, and wild men-function as a frame, critiquing the discourses that run through their texts. In Literary Hybrids, Erika Hess provides a close reading of one such hybrid-the female cross-dresser in thirteenth-century French romance-examining the interplay between physical and narrative ambiguity. Hess argues that the hybrid figure in medieval and contemporary French literature challenges the traditionally accepted natural order, upsets rational thinking, and underscores a concern with totalizing discourses or perspectives.