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regional sagas have sometimes been argued to be early steps in the devel-
opment of saga literature, and sometimes argued to be late in the develop-
ment of saga literature.22 the Íslenzk fornrit editors by contrast seemed to
have assumed that the entire body of Íslendingasögur is ipso facto about a
region: the volumes they published were organized, except for volume 14
discussed above, by region, starting in the southwest corner and moving
clockwise around the island, utilizing the same organizational principle as
Landnámabók. Perhaps this is why regional sagas as a subgenre have not
received particular attention; it can be seen as a ubiquitous and general
characteristic of the Íslendingasögur rather than a generic mode.
But in the discussion below, a different approach to genre is taken,
which in turn could justify thinking of regional sagas as a distinctive
generic mode. In keeping with broader trends in literary analysis outside
of saga studies, the discussion below asks how genre conventions affect the
author, text, and audience in the hermeneutics of reception, interpretation,
and meaning making.23 Genre is part of the agreement between the author
and the reader as to what is expected: a reader who knows she is reading
a crime fiction novel approaches the text in a different mode than a reader
who knows she is reading a romance. It is a learned mind-set that affects
the act of reading.24 Generic expectations motivate the production, recep-
tion and transmission of a work. Because necessary generic identifiers for
medieval manuscripts can be unclear,25 it is necessary to look at clues within
the text for how it is engaging its intended audience, and what response
those readers may bring in the act of interpretation.
22 Cf Jónas Kristjánsson, Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medieval Literature, trans. Peter Foote
(reykjavík: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafélag, 1988), 218; and Christopher Callow, “re con-
structing the Past in Medieval Iceland,” Early Medieval Europe 14.3 (2006): 297–324.
23 ansgar nünning, Marion Gymnich, roy Sommer, eds., Literature and Memory: Theoretical
Paradigms, Genre, Functions (tubingen: franke Verlag, 2006).
24 See Wolfgang Iser, The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response (Baltimore: John
Hopkins university Press, 1980) for a general discussion; amy Devitt “Integrating rhet-
orical and Literary theories of Genre,” College English 62.6 (2000): 696–718; and for a
more specific analysis of how genre affects both the reader and the world, Jason Swarts,
"Textual Grounding: How People Turn Texts Into Tools,” Journal of Technical Writing and
Communication 34 (2004): 67–89.
25 Emily Lethbridge notes that efforts to assign genre based on rubrics or text groupings may
not be particularly fruitful, “Hvorki glansar,” 70–73.
COMPLETING Þ Ó R Ð A R S A G A H R E Ð U