Romance | Definition, History, Examples, Components, & Facts

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data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/romance-literature-and-performance">romance</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref50944"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance#ref50944">The component elements</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50945"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance#ref50945">Style and subject matter</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50946"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance#ref50946">Developing psychological awareness</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50947"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance#ref50947">Sources and parallels</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50948"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-marvellous">The marvellous</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50949"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-marvellous#ref50949">The setting</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref50950"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-marvellous#ref50950">Medieval verse romances</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50951"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-marvellous#ref50951">Arthurian romance</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref50952"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-marvellous#ref50952">The matter of Britain</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref50953"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-marvellous#ref50953">Chrétien de Troyes</a></li></ul></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50954"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/Love-as-a-major-theme">Love as a major theme</a><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref50955"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/Love-as-a-major-theme#ref50955">The Tristan story</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h3"><li data-target="#ref50956"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/Love-as-a-major-theme#ref50956">The theme of separation and reunion</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref50957"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/Medieval-prose-romances">Medieval prose romances</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50958"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/Medieval-prose-romances#ref50958">Arthurian themes</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50959"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/Medieval-prose-romances#ref50959">Structure</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref50960"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/Medieval-prose-romances#ref50960">Later developments</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50961"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-spread-and-popularity-of-romance-literature">The spread and popularity of romance literature</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50962"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-spread-and-popularity-of-romance-literature#ref50962">The decline of romance</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref50963"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/romance-literature-and-performance/The-spread-and-popularity-of-romance-literature#ref50963">The 18th-century romantic revival</a></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/romance-literature-and-performance/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/romance-literature-and-performance">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-student-links"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10"> For Students </div> <div class="imagelink-with-image-on-the-side card card-horizontal tlr-img-with-side-link ml-15 link-gray-900 mb-10" > <div class="position-relative card-media" style="flex: 0;"> <a class="ilf-image position-relative" href="/summary/romance-literature-and-performance"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/images/shared/default3.png?v=3.130.14" class="default " height="200" 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It had <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="antecedents" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antecedents" data-type="MW">antecedents</a> in many prose works from classical antiquity (the so-called <span id="ref503666"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Greek-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Greek</a> romances), but as a distinctive <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/genre-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">genre</a> it was developed in the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> of the aristocratic courts of such patrons as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eleanor-of-Aquitaine" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Eleanor of Aquitaine</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sir-Walter-Scott-on-chivalry-1987278" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">(Read Sir Walter Scott’s 1824 Britannica essay on chivalry.) </a></em></p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The Old French word <em>romanz</em> originally meant “the speech of the people,” or “the vulgar tongue,” from a popular Latin word, <em>Romanice</em>, meaning written in the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="vernacular" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vernacular" data-type="MW">vernacular</a>, in contrast with the written form of literary Latin. Its meaning then shifted from the language in which the work was written to the work itself. Thus, an <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="adaptation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adaptation" data-type="MW">adaptation</a> of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-of-Monmouth" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Geoffrey of Monmouth’s</a> <em>Historia regum Britanniae</em> (1135–38), made by Wace of Jersey in 1155, was known as <em>Li Romanz de Brut</em>, while an anonymous adaptation (of slightly later date) of Virgil’s <em>Aeneid</em> was known as <em>Li Romanz d’Enéas</em>; it is difficult to tell whether in such cases <em>li romanz</em> still meant “the French version” or had already come to mean “the story.” It soon specialized in the latter sense, however, and was applied to narrative <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="compositions" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compositions" data-type="MW">compositions</a> similar in character to those imitated from Latin sources but totally different in origin; and, as the nature of these compositions changed, the word itself acquired an increasingly wide spectrum of meanings. In modern French a <em>roman</em> is just a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">novel</a>, whatever its content and structure; while in modern English the word “<span id="ref503663"></span>romance” (derived from Old French <em>romanz</em>) can mean either a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="medieval" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval" data-type="MW">medieval</a> narrative <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="composition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/composition" data-type="MW">composition</a> or a love affair, or, again, a story about a love affair, generally one of a rather <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="idyllic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idyllic" data-type="MW">idyllic</a> or idealized type, sometimes marked by strange or unexpected incidents and developments; and “to romance” has come to mean “to make up a story that has no connection with reality.”</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">For a proper understanding of these changes it is essential to know something of the history of the literary form to which, since the Middle Ages, the term has been applied. The account that follows is intended to elucidate historically some of the ways in which the word is used in English and in other European languages.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref50944"> <h2 class="h1">The component elements</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The romances of love, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="chivalry" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chivalry" data-type="MW">chivalry</a>, and adventure produced in 12th-century France have <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="analogues" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analogues" data-type="MW">analogues</a> elsewhere, notably in what are sometimes known as the <span id="ref503667"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Ancient-Greek-literature" class="md-crosslink ">Greek romances</a>—narrative works in prose by Greek writers from the 1st century <span class="text-smallcaps">bc</span> to the 3rd century <span class="text-smallcaps">ad</span>. The first known, the fragmentary <span id="ref503668"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ninus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ninus</a> romance, in telling the story of the love of Ninus, mythical founder of Nineveh, anticipates the medieval <em><span id="ref503669"></span>roman d’antiquité</em>. A number of works by writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries <span class="text-smallcaps">ad</span>—Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesus, Heliodorus, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Achilles-Tatius" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Achilles Tatius</a>, and Longus—introduce a theme that was to reappear in the <em><span id="ref503670"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/roman-daventure" class="md-crosslink ">roman d’aventure</a></em>: that of faithful lovers parted by accident or design and reunited only after numerous adventures. Direct connection, however, can be proved only in the case of the tale of <em><span id="ref503671"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apollonius-of-Tyre" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Apollonius of Tyre</a></em>, presumably deriving from a lost Greek original but known through a 3rd- or 4th-century Latin version. This too is a story of separation, adventure, and reunion, and, like the others (except for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Longus" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Longus’</a> pastoral <em>Daphnis and Chloë</em>), it has a quasi-historical <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/setting" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">setting</a>. It became one of the most popular and widespread stories in European <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">literature</a> during the Middle Ages and later provided Shakespeare with the theme of <em><span id="ref503672"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pericles-by-Shakespeare" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Pericles</a></em>.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <section data-level="2" id="ref50945"> <h2 class="h2">Style and subject matter</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">But the real debt of 12th-century romance to classical antiquity was incurred in a sphere outside that of subject matter. During the present century, scholars have laid ever-increasing emphasis on the impact of late classical antiquity upon the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW">culture</a> of medieval Europe, especially on that of medieval France. In particular, it is necessary to note the place that <span id="ref503673"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/rhetoric" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rhetoric</a> (the systematic study of oratory) had assumed in the educational system of the late Roman Empire. Originally conceived as part of the training for public speaking, essential for the lawyer and politician, it had by this time become a literary exercise, the art of adorning or expanding a set theme: combined with grammar and enshrined in the educational system inherited by the Christian Church, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="rhetoric" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rhetoric" data-type="MW">rhetoric</a> became an important factor in the birth of romance. Twelfth-century romance was, at the outset, the creation of “clerks”—professional writers who had been trained in grammar (that is to say, the study of the <span id="ref503674"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Latin-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Latin</a> language and the interpretation of Latin authors) and in rhetoric in the cathedral schools. They were skilled in the art of exposition, by which a subject matter was not only developed systematically but also given such meaning as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/author" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">author</a> thought appropriate. The “romance style” was, apparently, first used by the authors of three <em>romans d’antiquité</em>, all composed in the period 1150–65: <em><span id="ref503675"></span>Roman de Thebes</em>, an adaptation of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/epic" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">epic</a> <em>Thebaïs</em> by the late Latin poet Statius; <em><span id="ref503676"></span>Roman d’Enéas</em>, adapted from Virgil’s <em><span id="ref503677"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aeneid" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Aeneid</a></em>; and <em><span id="ref503678"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-de-Troie" class="md-crosslink ">Roman de Troie</a></em>, a retelling by <span id="ref503679"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benoit-de-Sainte-Maure" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Benoît de Sainte-Maure</a> of the tale of Troy, based not on Homer (who was not known in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/western" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">western</a> Europe, where Greek was not normally read) but on 4th- and 5th-century Latin versions. In all three, style and subject matter are closely interconnected; elaborate set descriptions, in which the various features of what is described are gone through, item by item, and eulogized, result in the action’s taking place in lavish surroundings, resplendent with gold, silver, marble, fine textiles, and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="precious" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/precious" data-type="MW">precious</a> stones. To these embellishments are added astonishing works of architecture and quaint technological marvels, that recall the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seven-Wonders-of-the-World" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Seven Wonders of the World</a> and the reputed glories of Byzantium. <em>Troie</em> and <em>Enéas</em> have, moreover, a strong love interest, inspired by the Roman poet <span id="ref503680"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ovid-Roman-poet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ovid’s</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conception" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conception" data-type="MW">conception</a> of love as a restless malady. This concept produced the first portrayal in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Western literature</a> of the doubts, hesitations, and self-torment of young lovers, as exemplified in the Achilles–Polyxena story in <em>Troie</em> and in the Aeneas–Lavinia story in <em>Enéas</em>. Yet even more important is the way in which this new theme is introduced: the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="rhetorical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rhetorical" data-type="MW">rhetorical</a> devices appropriate to expounding an argument are here employed to allow a character in love to explore his own feelings, to describe his attitude to the loved one, and to explain whatever action he is about to take.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref50946"> <h2 class="h2">Developing psychological awareness</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">As <span id="ref503681"></span>W.P. Ker, a pioneer in the study of medieval epic and romance, observed in his <em><span id="ref503682"></span>Epic and Romance</em> (1897), the advent of romance is “something as momentous and as far-reaching as that to which the name Renaissance is generally applied.” The Old French poets who composed the <span id="ref503683"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chanson-de-geste" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chansons de geste</a> (as the Old French epics are called) had been content to tell a story; they were concerned with statement, not with motivation, and their characters could act without explicitly justifying their actions. Thus, in what is one of the earliest and certainly the finest of the chansons de geste, the <em><span id="ref503684"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/La-Chanson-de-Roland" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Chanson de Roland</a></em> (<em>c.</em> 1100), the hero’s decision to fight on against odds—to let the rear guard of <span id="ref503685"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Charlemagne-legend" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Charlemagne</a>’s army be destroyed by the Saracen hordes in the hopeless and heroic Battle of Roncesvalles rather than sound his horn to call back Charlemagne—is not treated as a matter for discussion and analysis: the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="anonymous" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/anonymous" data-type="EB">anonymous</a> poet seems to take it for granted that the reader is not primarily concerned with the reason why things happened as they did. The new techniques of elucidating and elaborating material, developed by romance writers in the 12th century, produced a method whereby actions, motives, states of mind, were scrutinized and debated. The story of how <span id="ref503686"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Troilus-Greek-mythology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Troilus</a> fell in love with Briseïs and how, when taken to the Grecian camp, she deserted him for Diomedes (as related, and presumably invented, by Benoît de Sainte-Maure in his <em>Roman de Troie</em>) is not one of marvellous adventures in some exotic fairyland setting: it is clearly a theme of considerable psychological interest, and it was for this reason that it attracted three of the greatest writers of all time: Boccaccio in his <em><span id="ref503687"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Il-filostrato" class="md-crosslink ">Filostrato</a></em> (<em>c.</em> 1338), Chaucer in his <em><span id="ref503688"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Troilus-and-Criseyde" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Troilus and Criseyde</a></em> (before 1385), and Shakespeare in his <em><span id="ref503690"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Troilus-and-Cressida" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Troilus and Cressida</a></em> (<em>c.</em> 1601–02). With the 12th-century pioneers of what came to be called romance, the beginnings of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/scientific-method" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">analytical method</a> found in the modern novel can easily be recognized.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> </section> <section data-level="2" id="ref50947"> <h2 class="h2">Sources and parallels</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Where exactly medieval romance writers found their material when they were not simply copying classical or pseudo-classical models is still a highly controversial issue. Parallels to certain famous stories, such as that of <span id="ref503691"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tristan-and-Isolde" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tristan and Iseult</a>, have been found in regions as wide apart as Persia and Ireland: in the mid-11th-century Persian epic of <em>Wis and Ramin</em> and in the Old Irish <em>Diarmaid and Gráinne</em>; but while in the latter case it is possible to argue in favour of a genetic link between the two traditions, the former is more likely to be a case of parallel development due, on the one hand, to the inner logic of the theme and, on the other, to certain similarities in the ideological and social background of the two works. Failure to maintain the essential distinction between source and parallel has greatly hindered the understanding of the true nature of medieval romance and has led to the production of a vast critical literature the relevance of which to the study of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="genre" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre" data-type="MW">genre</a> is at best questionable.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> </section> </section><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":5,"pageId":508347,"pageLength":1569,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Romance | Definition, History, Examples, Components, & Facts | Britannica