Genealogy

Form and Function in Medieval Historical Narrative

Bibliographic Data

ID4496370
AuthorsGabrielle M Spiegel (corresponding author)
Year1983
Volume22
Issue1
Pages43
Publication date1983-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2505235
OpenAlexW2315481778
LanguageEN
Citations received24

Despite its sardonic tone, Gerald of Wales's tale of his hapless compatriot, whose reading of Geoffrey of Monmouth oppressed him so mightily in body and soul, seems to me an apt figure for medieval historiography, for few phases of the Western tradition of historical writing have called forth so many critical demons. Indeed, medieval historiography is that rare phenomenon among scholars, a field often scorned as much by those who are acquainted with it as by those who are not. It is hardly necessary to rehearse the litany of errors of which the practice of historiography in the Middle Ages stands accused: its philosophical alliance with theology, which evacuated from history its human purpose and meaning; its literary alliance with rhetoric, which made it inimical to the pursuit of truth; its exemplarist and stereotypical use of historical events and persons for moral teaching, denying them what a modern historian would consider their historicity, their relationship to a historical context; its concern with experience, custom, and repetition, rather than reason, individuality, and process; even its absence from the curriculum of medieval pedagogy which meant, as V. H. Galbraith once remarked, that the serious study of history in the Middle Ages was nobody's business.2 To the above failings, one normally adds its low

Art · Form and function · Genealogy · Literature · Narrative · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philippine History and Culture · Psychology

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