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In this article, we develop a framework for the analysis of 'movement' in literary texts. We focus on characters, translation and transmission, thereby going beyond, on the one hand, a stylistic analysis of individual passages, and, on the other hand, the linear enchainment of scenes and summaries underlying much of the narratological discussions around movement, speed and pace. We will develop this framework through a discussion of the character Camilla in Vergil's Aeneid: Book XI, Gavin Douglas's Eneados (1513) and John Dryden's Aeneis (1698). Both the version stylistically close to Vergil (Dryden) and the one that is stylistically looser (Douglas) allow for a discussion of movement that takes the principle beyond a primary concern with style. In a final step, we move to the contemporary example of Ursula Le Guin's Lavinia (2008) in order to investigate how 'movement' translates from the epic to the novel. Movement, as we shall show, can be analysed as movement of plot, movement of thought, and movement of figure in narrative. The framework that we propose allows for the principled discussion of transgeneric transfer of narratives, here between epic and novel, as well as the comparison of texts from different moments of literary history between the Middle Ages, the Early Modern period and the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chaucer criticism has always grappled with the question of intentionality. While early critics saw no trouble in identifying the voices in Chaucer's texts with the author's intention, authorial intention—not to be confused with autobiographical readings—became the elephant in the room from the early twentieth century onward. This article reviews the various approaches critics have put forward within Chaucer studies to avoid ascribing intention to Chaucer the poet. Starting with the concept of the narrator (a twentieth-century invention), three different approaches to the Canterbury Tales and their narrative situations are discussed, in which authorial intention looms large: the "dramatic," the "detached," and the "animated." Then a case is made for the unavoidability of intentionalist readings by drawing on cognitive literary theories, in particular the intentional stance. When engaging with Chaucer, critics need to embrace intention as a key generator in the meaning-making activity of interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Unnatural' narratology has been a thriving new field of narrative theory in recent years. What its various sub-fields share is that they are concerned, very broadly, with narratives that transcend the parameters of conventional realism. One of the field's promises is that it can also account for earlier 'unnatural' narrative scenarios, for instance in ancient and medieval literature. Focusing on two recent publications by Alber and Richardson, this essay challenges the historical trajectory the movement envisages. Paying special attention to the influence of religion on premodern narratives and its implications for the concept of the unnatural, this essay argues that unnatural narratology is reductionist and adheres to a structuralist paradigm, and thus cannot do justice to the idiosyncrasies of premodern narrative forms and functions. An alternative approach to the unnatural as a dynamic form is introduced as an outlook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on collective experience in narratives. Topics include representation of collective experience as positive and negative existence of collective experience for all periods or genres, identification of collective experience as mimetic and unnatural narrative, relation between factual and fictional narration, and author Alan Palmer's concept on social minds. Other topics include author Eva von Contzen's work on medieval narrative and author Daniel Hostert's analysis of prose.

The article offers information on the action oriented concept of medieval culture in response to social minds. Topics include differences in concept of social minds by author Alan Palmer and action-oriented medieval characters, books including "The Life of St. Katherine of Alexandria" by John Capgrave and "Legend of St. Margaret" by John Lydgate's, and representation of collective experience by Robert Hasenfratz's book "Ancrene Wisse."

the article discusses the way in which the poetic legend of John the Baptist found in the 14th-century text "Scottish Legendary" was influenced by the book "Travels" by Italian explorer Marco Polo. Focus is given to both texts' description of a miracle involving a column that floats in the air. The author notes discussions of such a miracle are relatively rare in hagiography.