About the Project
Starting from the premise that retelling is a trans-historical concept, the project sheds new light on the processes of reception that find their expression in the current interest in and relevance of pre-modern material.
The project triangulates (classical) reception studies, medieval literary studies as well as literary theory, especially postmodernist theory, and scrutinizes the practice of retelling premodern (ancient and medieval) texts in contemporary English literature. Derivate thus develops a theory of retelling based on the intense engagement and critical comparison with medieval practices of retelling in order to map the wider cultural, historical, and literary contexts and implications of the current trend in retellings of classical and medieval texts (audiences, canon, literary market) as a springboard for developing a literary history of derivations.
