Tristan & Isolde dir. by Kevin Reynolds (review)

84ARTHURIANA in medieval history wiiting is one ofthe standouts in the volume, a delight to read. Nancy Partner and Marshall Leicester both read closely and against the grain ofthe texts they have chosen. Their virtuoso readings ofChristine Markyate and Marie de France respectively demonstrate the ways in which texts, far from being univocal, are sites ofsttuggle over conflicting meanings. Chrisropher Baswell and SuzanneAkbari both engage questions ofpolitical identity, exploring the possibility that something like national identity existed during the Middle Ages. While Akbari's reading of Richard Coer de Lion is fascinating, I preferred Baswell's more cautious approach to the issue of nationalism. I remain one of the few skeptics who still believe, contra Akbari, that the question ofmedieval nationalisms is far from settled. The second section is devoted to Chaucer studies. Several of the essays in this section focus on gender, primarily in The Canterbury Tales. Petet Travis and Margaret Pappano explore masculinity, while Elizabeth Robertson and Laura Howes investigate rape and misogyny in Chaucer's works. Travis, who reads Fragment VII 'askew' (213), and George Economou, who writes about Chaucer's relation to William Langland, rely on approaches that explore intertextuality. Pappano and William Askins discuss Chaucerian texts thtough historical documenrs. Robertson, who looks at Chaucei's and James I's naitative rapes in relarion to their own experiences, offers a synthesis ofthe two approaches. Finally, the essays byJohn Ganim and Sealy Gilles and Sylvia Tomasch offer trenchant forays into the medievalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The final section pays tribute to Hanning's interests in the art and literature of the Italian Renaissance. In this section, Joan Fettante's essay on the women of the House ofSavoy and their influence on TheDivine Comedystands out, demonstrating not only the literary and political accomplishments of medieval women, but also how much Dante's poem benefits from historical contextualization. The essays by Warren Ginsberg on Chaucer's translations of Boccaccio in The Franklin 's Tale, Joseph Dane on linear perspective, and David Rosand on Castiglione's Courtier distinguish themselves from most of the essays in the book, evincing interests that are more formalist than historical. They seem more concerned with raising aesthetic issues than cultural ones (although these are not entirely unconnecred). All are able essays, but I kept wondering what was at stake in them for a non-specialist reader. Such a briefsurvey cannot begin to do justice to a volume that engages so many current debates in medieval studies. Readers will find this volume stimulating, whethet they read it from covet to cover or simply sample ir. LAURIE A. FINKE Kenyon College Tristan &Isolde, directed by kevin Reynolds from a screenplay by dean geogaris, A 20th Century Fox release ofa Scott Free Production and an Apollopromedia/MFF (Tristan and Isolde)/Stillking/Qi Quality Int. Co-production, 2006. 'Before Romeo &Juliet thete was. . .' says the tagline, suggesting that the filmmaker assumes slim knowledge ofthe legend amongthe popularaudiences he rargers. Sadly, they will leatn little mote than that the lovers were caught in a triangle involving REVIEWS85 Isolde's husband and Tristan's lotd, the leader ofCornwall, whose enemywas Isolde's father, the King of Ireland. The medieval legend that has enthralled so many from the twelfth century to the present is virtually unrecognizable. Whatwas the film's source? Some details point to Wagnet's opera—the spellings of 'Isolde' and 'Marke,' Morholt as Isolde's betrothed, and the discovery scene in which Marke and Melot, among others, surprise the lovers in the woods at night. Yet there is very little Wagner, and therein lies a certain irony. Wagner pared down Gottfried's classic vetsion to what he considered its essence—a tale oflove and death. It is this tale, dehistoricized and stripped ofits socio-political context, that appealed to so many in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Denis de Rougemont, whose influential L'Amour et l'Occident (Love in the Western World, 1939) figured for years on rhe reading list ofworld literature courses. For Rougemont the film's tagline would make ample sense. The irony ofreferencing Wagner is that the film appears to 'historicize' the legend in a manner reminiscent of Fuqua's KingArthur (2004...