Abstract

Abstract:

The texts of the mediaeval corpus of imaginary literature about Alexander the Great intersect in such a way as to create an interfigural hero whose significance is established through the intertextual narrative of his education. The peculiarities of Alexander’s physique provide the key to the disordered nature of desire in the text and identify the hero as a victim of destructive envy who seeks to fashion a Self through a perverse mimesis and rivalry with the Other. René Girard’s model of the vaniteux is employed to reveal the dynamics of the hero’s misconstrual of reality and his education into an understanding of Self and Other.

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