Anonymity and the Textual Construction of Authority in Prosimetrum

Bibliographic Data

ID20076269
AuthorsJudy Quinn (corresponding author)
Year2021
Pages123-140
Publication date2021-12-06
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueIn Search of the Culprit (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/9783110725339-006
OpenAlexW4200136625
ISBN9783110725339
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited1

The ways in which anonymity participates in the textual construction of authority is the focus of this chapter, which proceeds through an investigation of the literary effects that were achieved in two different kinds of medieval Icelandic prosimetrum, examples which demonstrate how literate authors exploited the potential of orally transmitted poetry to enrich their prose. The case studies are drawn from Gylfaginning by Snorri Sturluson, where anonymous poetry simulating the speech of gods is quoted within a treatise by a named author, and orgils saga ok Haflia, where stanzas by contemporary poets named and unnamed are quoted within an anonymous saga about a 12 th -century political feud. The theoretical frame is provided by reflections on authorship by Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes which, while dating from the 1960s, still hold considerable relevance for the analysis of the competing voices of prosimetrum, especially with regard to the establishment of authority within written discourse. The notion of 'an index of truthfulness', constituted by poetic quotation around which the narration develops, is explored and it is proposed that across a wide range of discursive situations voices speaking according to conventions of poetic composition are rendered authoritative through the performance of quotation

Anonymity · Computer security · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods

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