The Subject of Violence: The Song of Roland and the Birth of the State

By Peter Haidu

"This book provides the reader with a new, challenging, and sophisticated critical analysis of the Song of Roland." --Choice

" Haidu's] close reading of the Song of Roland is interesting, informative, and significant . . . " --American Historical Review

"Probably the most sophisticated book ever written on the Song of Roland. . . . It is at once a work of linguistic analysis, of literary theory, of literary history, and, finally, of history." --R. Howard Bloch

Haidu argues that the 12th-century Song of Roland played an essential role in the creation of the nation-state, in that the narrative transforms the independent and violent warriors of the feudal period into the subordinate instruments of the nation-state by enforcing on them the subjection to the rule of monarchy.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253305489
• ISBN13: 9780253305480
• Release Date: August 1993
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher