Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1337896675.pdf (776.28 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Noble Venery: Hunting and the Aristocratic Imagination in Late Medieval English Literature

Judkins, Ryan R.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337896675

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
As Johan Huizinga and, more recently, Pierre Bourdieu have argued, what we do and the games we play influence how we act and think. Similarly, as George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have concluded, the metaphors that we use display our conceptual structures. Taking these two points as a basis, this thesis examines hunting, the major leisure pursuit of the aristocracy, in medieval English literature. Many have concluded that hunting was just a general courtly pastime of no particular interest, especially for literary scholars, while others have struggled to analyze it because it was so prevalent and so wide-ranging, and thus presents an immense body of literature. In response, this dissertation defines the concept of "venery" and then argues that venery was, along with chivalry and love, one of the three major foci of aristocratic culture, and that medieval authors played extensively upon it rhetorically. Through an often dialectical consideration of a wide range of late medieval Anglo-French literature, this thesis first argues that venery both arose from and fundamentally influenced the aristocratic habitus and imagination, in large part because hunting was a central component of the aristocratic education. Then, it analyzes how the courtly par-force hunt particularly embodied this process and shifted over time to respond to various social changes. The dissertation then turns to a consideration of how Chaucer in Troilus and Criseyde and the anonymous author of the Alliterative Morte Arthure employ veneric themes rhetorically in attempts to influence their aristocratic audiences' perceptions of love and of chivalry. In the process, they reveal the fundamental importance of venery on the aristocratic comprehension of chivalry and love and more broadly on the aristocratic imagination. An understanding of venery is thus essential to an appreciation of medieval courtly literature and an understanding of the cultural assumptions of the medieval nobility.
Richard Green, PhD (Advisor)
Lisa Kiser, PhD (Committee Member)
Ethan Knapp, PhD (Committee Member)
211 p.
Animals; British and Irish Literature; Comparative Literature; Cultural Anthropology; European History; Literature; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages
hunting; medieval; hunt; venery; falconry; aristocracy; nobility; court; Chaucer; Troilus and Criseyde; Alliterative Morte Arthure; game; deer; hart; habitus; war; warfare; courtship; love; aristocratic education;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Judkins, R. R. (2012). Noble Venery: Hunting and the Aristocratic Imagination in Late Medieval English Literature [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337896675

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Judkins, Ryan. Noble Venery: Hunting and the Aristocratic Imagination in Late Medieval English Literature. 2012. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337896675.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Judkins, Ryan. "Noble Venery: Hunting and the Aristocratic Imagination in Late Medieval English Literature." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337896675

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1337896675
3,514
© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.