Kaleidoscopic Narration

The idea of some, particularly late medieval, genres of Old Norse-Icelandic literature operating in a kaleidoscopic manner has been present in saga scholarship for several decades. The contributions in this volume, however, demonstrate that the concept of kaleidoscopic narration is a narrative strategy typical of medieval Scandinavian literature as a whole. The same motifs are re-arranged, re-told and re-shaped across multiple representations in different narratives. Individual elements may drop out of or be added to the kaleidoscope’s repository from which narratives are generated over time and in response to changes in audience taste or socio-cultural context. This volume brings together contributions from different perspectives to explore how kaleidoscopic narration operates in a variety of contexts or genres. The contributions’ approach is twofold. On the one hand, they include a wide range of genres and types of medieval Scandinavian literature, cover the reception of medieval literature, and investigate overlaps between genres or types of literature, such as sagas and legal texts. On the other hand, they discuss and interrogate the concept of kaleidoscopic narration on a theoretical level and offer alternative approaches.