This book focuses on minor characters in fiction, primarily nameless and unimportant figures found within medieval Icelandic sagas but weaving in examples from Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, and the Pet Shop Boys. Jakobsson examines minor characters and their role, as well as their absence, through narratology. He also studies the sagas as literature, arguing that few elements open up sagas as much as how minor characters function.

Explores the narrative strategies of the Icelandic sagas through character Blends the scholarly with the light and the medieval with the modern Deals with the minor character in a comparative and holistic way

Autorentext

Ármann Jakobsson is Professor of Old Icelandic Literature at the University of Iceland.

Inhalt

Unimportance.- Martin Guerre.-The Passing of Time.-Empathy.-Unimportant Task .-The Anticlimax of Anxiety .-The Magnates and the Heap.- Ill Auguries .-Back to Black .-Dogs and Norwegians .-Head Boy .-Sleepy Boy .-Fashion-Conscious Boy.-Pragmatic Boy .-The Granny and the Weed.-Commonplace Ambition.-Woman in a Hurry.-Peacemaking Woman.- Wandering Women.-Giggling Woman.-Horny Servants.-Bad Stance .-Wise Eastman .-The Game of Parliament.-Demon Boys.-There Will Be Blood.-Doppelgänger.-Tears of Contrition, Dreams of Conscience.- Existential Roshambo.-In-Text Audience.-Over.-Cool.-Hesitation.- Expansion.- Irrelevance.