Mandeville's Travails

Merging Travel, Theory, and Commentary

Francis Tobienne Jr.

This book offers a critical methodology for analyzing travel literature. The subject of travel literature, as well as travel literatures, have not always been regarded with respect or given much critical attention. In order to amend this lack of positive reception, Francis Tobienne Jr. analyzes the late medieval text Mandeville’s Travels, specifically the Cotton MS. This text, though not overly popular currently, was among the most popular pieces of literature for well beyond its fourteenth-century inception in some three hundred manuscripts divided into three groups as well as early printed editions; further, this text offers a way in which to approach other pieces of travel literature. To facilitate this critical process Tobienne proposes a seven-part method: 1. Identify and Define the Problem, 2. Make Observations, 3. Look for Regularities, 4. Wonder Why Regularities Exist, 5. Propose a Hypothesis, 6. Use an Experiment and 7. Have Reproducible Results. Of note, Mandeville’s Travels is both the impetus behind this seven-part method, as well as the object of study. Thus, Tobienne showcases how each element of the seven-part method is at play in the text, even as he argues for the text’s importance within medieval studies. Also included in this examination is the application of this seven-part method to medieval and post-period pieces of literature. The book culminates in an argument for the canonization and importance of Mandeville’s Travels in and beyond medieval studies.

University Press Copublishing Division / University of Delaware Press

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-1-61149-603-1 • Hardback • June 2016 • $102.00 • (£78.00)

978-1-61149-604-8 • eBook • June 2016 • $96.50 • (£74.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Medieval, Literary Criticism / Books & Reading, Literary Criticism / General

Mandeville's Travails

Merging Travel, Theory, and Commentary

Hardback

eBook

Summary

This book offers a critical methodology for analyzing travel literature. The subject of travel literature, as well as travel literatures, have not always been regarded with respect or given much critical attention. In order to amend this lack of positive reception, Francis Tobienne Jr. analyzes the late medieval text Mandeville’s Travels, specifically the Cotton MS. This text, though not overly popular currently, was among the most popular pieces of literature for well beyond its fourteenth-century inception in some three hundred manuscripts divided into three groups as well as early printed editions; further, this text offers a way in which to approach other pieces of travel literature. To facilitate this critical process Tobienne proposes a seven-part method: 1. Identify and Define the Problem, 2. Make Observations, 3. Look for Regularities, 4. Wonder Why Regularities Exist, 5. Propose a Hypothesis, 6. Use an Experiment and 7. Have Reproducible Results. Of note, Mandeville’s Travels is both the impetus behind this seven-part method, as well as the object of study. Thus, Tobienne showcases how each element of the seven-part method is at play in the text, even as he argues for the text’s importance within medieval studies. Also included in this examination is the application of this seven-part method to medieval and post-period pieces of literature. The book culminates in an argument for the canonization and importance of Mandeville’s Travels in and beyond medieval studies.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / University of Delaware Press

Pages: 184 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-1-61149-603-1 • Hardback • June 2016 • $102.00 • (£78.00)

978-1-61149-604-8 • eBook • June 2016 • $96.50 • (£74.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Medieval, Literary Criticism / Books & Reading, Literary Criticism / General

Author

Francis Tobienne, Jr. (Ph.D., PURDUE) is professor of literature, writing, and humanities in the department of English at South University, Tampa and Senior Dalí Research Fellow at the Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida. Dr. Tobienne is the author of The Position of Magic in Selected Medieval Spanish Texts (2008), and the editor of Occultus: the Hidden and Macabre in Literature and Film (2016).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
OneTravel as Ideological Belief
TwoProblems, Observations, and Memory
ThreeRegularities and Hypothesis
FourRecorded Experiment and Reproducibility
Five(A) Heuristic
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Mandeville's Travails

Merging Travel, Theory, and Commentary

Francis Tobienne Jr.

Mandeville's Travails

Merging Travel, Theory, and Commentary

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