Jane Gilbert, Simon Gaunt and William Burgwinkle
Medieval French Literary Culture Abroad
Oxford University Press, coll. Oxford Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture,
Paru le15/4/2020
ISBN: 9780198832454
304 p. — Prix: £ 60
The field of medieval francophone literary culture outside France was for many years a minor and peripheral sub-field of medieval French literary studies (or, in the case of Anglo-Norman, of English studies). The past two decades, however, have seen a major reassessment of the use of French in England, in the Low Countries, in Italy, and in the eastern Mediterranean, and this impacts significantly upon the history of literature in French more generally. This book is the first to look at the question overall, rather than just at one region. It also takes a more sustained theorised approach than other studies, drawing particularly on Derrida and on Actor-Network Theory. It discusses a wide range of texts, some of which have hitherto been regarded as marginal to French literary history, and makes the case for this material being more central to the literary history of French than was allowed in more traditional approaches focused narrowly on 'France'. Many of the arguments in Medieval French Literary Culture Abroad are grounded in readings of texts in manuscript (rather than in modern critical editions), and sustained attention is paid throughout to manuscripts that were produced or travelled outside the kingdom of France.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1: Local French Outside France
2: Francophone Literary Culture on the Move: Northern Italy
3: Living History: Pierre de Langtoft and London, BL, Royal MS 20 A II
4: History, Time, and Empire: the Histoire ancienne in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
5: The Movement of Books: Two Manuscript Studies
6: Dark Networks: Pre-histories, Post-histories and Imagined Geographies
Conclusion: Networks, Communities, Language, and the Writing of History: Medieval French Literary Culture Outside France
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This book is a major output of the AHRC-funded project, Medieval Francophone Literature Outside France, and complements the database of manuscripts at www.medievalfrancophone.ac.uk.