Medieval French Literary Culture Abroad (Oxford Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture)

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 theorized 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. The monograph series Oxford Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture showcases the plurilingual and multicultural quality of medieval literature and actively seeks to promote research that not only focuses on the array of subjects medievalists now pursue -- in literature, theology, and philosophy, in social, political, jurisprudential, and intellectual history, the history of art, and the history of science -- but also that combines these subjects productively. It offers innovative studies on topics that may include, but are not limited to, manuscript and book history; languages and literatures of the global Middle Ages; race and the post-colonial; the digital humanities, media and performance; music; medicine; the history of affect and the emotions; the literature and practices of devotion; the theory and history of gender and sexuality, ecocriticism and the environment; theories of aesthetics; medievalism. 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. Cover Medieval French Literary Culture Abroad Copyrighht Acknowledgements Contents Maps and Figures Introduction The Problem and Its Scale This Book 1: Local French outside France: Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis and the Second Mise en Prose of the Roman de Troie England c. 1136 Italy c. 1270 2: Francophone Literary Culture on the Move: Northern Italy 3: Living History: Pierre de Langtoft and London, BL, Royal MS 20 A II Scotland, England, and the North-East Langtoft’s Geste: The Politics of Language, Form, and Discourse The ‘Political Songs’ and a Living Historiography Royal 20 A II: History in Time Royal 20 A II: The Turn to French Prose Romance Conclusion 4: History, Time, and Empire: The Histoire ancienne in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem Acre as Political and Textual Node The Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César The problem with saying almost Acre Manuscripts of the Histoire ancienne Illuminations 5: The Movement of Books: Two Manuscript Studies Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS 5667E London, BL, Royal MS 20 D 1 6: Dark Networks: Prehistories, Post-histories, and Imagined Geographies The Peacock and the Low Countries Conclusion Conclusion: Networks, Communities, Language, and the Writing of History: Medieval French Literary Culture Outside France Bibliography Index 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 text looks at the question overall, rather than just at one region. It also takes a more sustained theorized approach than other studies, drawing particularly on Derrida and on Actor-Network Theory Studies manuscript sources, often of under-studied works and writers, to reassess the use of French as a literary language outside France in the medieval period.