P. Haidu, The Subject Medieval/Modern

Parution livre

Information publiée le vendredi 22 octobre 2004 par Julien Desrochers

Peter Haidu, The Subject Medieval/Modern. Text and Governance in the Middle Ages, Stanford University Press, 2004, 464 p.

ISBN 080474744X

This ambitious book presents the most thorough historicist account to date of the development of subjectivity in the medieval period, as traced in medieval literature and historical documentation . Presenting the essence of the modern subject as resting in its subjection to specific historical forms of state power, the author examines literary texts from the Middle Ages that participate in the cultural invention of the subject. Overall, The Subject Medieval/Modern makes a remarkable case for the relevance of studying the Middle Ages to today's world.

The book examines the constitution of subjects in literary texts as the result of the interplay of violence, ideology, and political structures as an integral part of the process of state-formation between the ninth and the fifteenth centuries. Each text is considered a singular event, a unique, self-reflexive structure modifying conventions in ideological exploration to offer performative models of subjectivity. Some texts line up with political evolution, others take a critical distance.

Peter Haidu taught medieval literature and critical theory at Columbia, Yale, Virginia, and Illinois, before retiring from UCLA. He now lives in Paris. He is the author of Subject of Violence: The Song of Roland and the Birth of the State.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Part I. Before the State

1. The Peace Movement: A Crisis in Ideology

2. War, Peasant Revolt, and the Saint Alexis

3. Epic and the King's Peace: The Song of Roland and Louis' Coronation

4. The Love-Lyric as Political Technology

5. Chrétien de Troyes: The Perspectival Novel

6. "Marie de France": The Postcolonial lais

7. Raoul de Cambrai: Haunting Violence

Part II. Governance

8. Representation in State Governance I: Literacy