Medieval narratives consisting of the picaresque, realism, and romance are discussed in 5 pages with the chivalric code and idealism the primary topics of focus. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
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In order to explore the way that romance and realism are employed in
picaresque and chivalric tales, it is useful for the student to define the terms which are used. For example, since the picaresque always involves a journey, usually one which is
both geographical and spiritual, there is an opportunity for the author to involve elements of both realism and romance in the course of the narrative, often to give both a
pragmatic, or moral perspective to the story and to emphasise the link between literature and myth. Romance itself, in the sense that it is an idealised form of the realistic,
can be seen to have its roots in the metaphorical aspects of myth.
As Frye points out in Fables of Identity, myth is the predecessor of what we consider nowadays to be defined as literature, and in both cases
the underlying meaning of the narrative is contained within the incidents which occur in the development of the story (Frye, 1963). Myth encompasses both the story, in the sense of
the way that events are conveyed, and metaphor, in that there are underlying values and archetypes which are contained in the events themselves. The student could therefore look at the
extent to which the selected pieces deal with both realistic characterisation and event, and also with elements of myth as expressed through romance.