“To teach, to delight, and to change”: Didactic Narration in The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry

  • Dominika Ruszkiewicz Jesuit University IGNATIANUM in Krakow
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35765/mjse.2018.0713.05
Keywords: medieval education, conduct books, narration

Abstract

Written in French towards the end of the fourteenth century and translated into English by William Caxton in 1484, The Book of the Knight of the Tower is a conduct book for girls. It is composed of numerous short narratives through which the Knight of la Tour Landry, after the loss of his wife, instructs his daughters on their duties. The purpose of this paper is to examine various pedagogic strategies used by the father-narrator to engage his young daughters, to hold their attention, and to make his lessons memorable. Attention will also be paid to the tone and formal markers of the work, which has been classified as an example of medieval children’s literature.

Author Biography

Dominika Ruszkiewicz, Jesuit University IGNATIANUM in Krakow

Dominika Ruszkiewicz is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Culture at the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Kraków. She holds a doctoral degree in Literature Studies from the Pedagogical University of Kraków. In her PhD thesis she examined the evolution of courtly love in the dream poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer and the Scottish Chaucerians. Her main field of study is Middle English and Middle Scots poetry. She has also written on the history of litanic verse.

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Published
2018-11-30
How to Cite
Ruszkiewicz, D. (2018). “To teach, to delight, and to change”: Didactic Narration in The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry. Multidisciplinary Journal of School Education, 7(1 (13). https://doi.org/10.35765/mjse.2018.0713.05
Issue
Vol. 7 No. 1 (13) (2018): The Central Role of Narration in Education
Section
Thematic Articles
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