Catalan Dispute Poem between En Buc and His Horse

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
20K words
Chapters
3

Tags

Foreign Language Books Animal FableHumor ReliefTextual CriticismSatirical StylePoetic FormPopular ExplanationDebate TraditionCatalan LiteratureMedieval Europe

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Catalanisches Streitgedicht zwischen En Buc und seinem Pferd by Wendelin FoersterAuthor: ,Language: German, Class: PC: Language and Literatures: Romance languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Feb 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is a Catalan debate poem edited by Wendelin Foerster, built around a dialogue between En Buc and his horse—a rare and intriguing example of the animal-dialogue tradition in medieval debate literature. The work is short but preserves the typical structure of the debate poem: man and horse accuse and rebut each other, and through the banter touch on themes such as master-servant relations, reason and instinct. As a public-domain electronic text, its value lies mainly at the documentary and linguistic level: the Catalan original offers close-reading material for Romance-language researchers and medieval literature enthusiasts, and serves as a sample of the "animal debate" motif in comparative literature. It is best read as a raw text in need of annotation rather than a popular story; suited to slow reading with a glossary in a quiet setting, or to being set alongside debate poems in Latin or French on the same theme. If you are looking for a narrative with a complete plot, this book may seem short and its language barrier relatively high.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read through once to grasp the dialogue framework, then closely read key sentences paragraph by paragraph with a dictionary.
  2. Read alongside animal debate poems in other languages to observe how the motif changes across traditions.
  3. Take notes on the respective positions of man and horse as you read, and trace the logic of the debate.
  4. If your language foundation is weak, start with background introductions to literary history, then return to the original text.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3

FAQ

What language is this book written in, and is it hard to read? The main text is in Catalan and is a medieval text, with spelling and grammar differing from modern Catalan, so it poses a certain barrier for beginners. Basic knowledge of a Romance language is recommended, or a willingness to read slowly with a dictionary and literary-history materials.
What are the characteristics of the "debate poem" genre? The debate poem is a common medieval genre in which two characters speak in turn and refute each other, forming a dialogic argument. In this poem man and horse each hold their own view, and the clash of opinions carries banter and satire; as you read, pay attention to how each side's arguments develop and conclude.
Does this electronic text include annotations or a modern translation? According to available information, this is a public-domain electronic text offering mainly the original content, with no indication of detailed annotations or a modern translation. Readers wanting notes may consult relevant literary histories and research literature for support.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.