Literature And Society In Medieval France

Medieval society was dominated by its knights and nobles. The literature created in medieval Europe was primarily a literature of knightly deeds, and the modern imagination has also been captured by these leaders and warriors. This book explores the nature of the nobility, focusing on France in the High Middle Ages (11th-13th centuries). Constance Brittain Bouchard examines their families; their relationships with peasants, townspeople, and clerics; and the images of them fashioned in medieval literary texts. She incorporates throughout a consideration of noble women and the nobility's attitude toward women. Research in the last two generations has modified and expanded modern understanding of who knights and nobles were; how they used authority, war, and law; and what position they held within the broader society. Even the concepts of feudalism, courtly love, and chivalry, once thought to be self-evident aspects of medieval society, have been seriously questioned. Bouchard presents bold new interpretations of medieval literature as both reflecting and criticizing the role of the nobility and their behavior. She offers the first synthesis of this scholarship in accessible form, inviting general readers as well as students and professional scholars to a new understanding of aristocratic role and function.

Medieval Artistry and Exchange presents a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of the economic, social, and political context of Medieval French epic, romance, and the Roman de la Rose. It examines the emergence of vernacular literature in medieval France in relationship to an unprecedented commercial revival which profoundly reshaped society. This work, which builds on literary, historical, anthropological, and linguistic studies, offers valuable insights concerning the way that literary texts and social context are both mutually informing as well as mutually reflective of the tensions inherent in the moment of ideological evolution they mark.

This book explores the historical and imaginary representation of the Saracen, or Muslim, in French writings from 1100 to 1500.

This book defines the relation between Old French literature and the judicial transformation of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Medieval society was dominated by its knights and nobles. The literature created in medieval Europe was primarily a literature of knightly deeds, and the modern imagination has also been captured by these leaders and warriors. This book explores the nature of the nobility, focusing on France in the High Middle Ages (11th-13th centuries). Constance Brittain Bouchard examines their families; their relationships with peasants, townspeople, and clerics; and the images of them fashioned in medieval literary texts. She incorporates throughout a consideration of noble women and the nobility's attitude toward women.Research in the last two generations has modified and expanded modern understanding of who knights and nobles were; how they used authority, war, and law; and what position they held within the broader society. Even the concepts of feudalism, courtly love, and chivalry, once thought to be self-evident aspects of medieval society, have been seriously questioned. Bouchard presents bold new interpretations of medieval literature as both reflecting and criticizing the role of the nobility and their behavior. She offers the first synthesis of this scholarship in accessible form, inviting general readers as well as students and professional scholars to a new understanding of aristocratic role and function.

The author gives a unique picture of life and northwestern France at the turn of the twelfth century. He shows not only the glories but also the tensions of this transitional age, which gave birth to the reform of the Church, to new intellectual and spiritual movements, and to far-reaching social and economic developments, but which at the same time saw growing resistance to the established authority of the Church and feudal aristocracy, the turbulence of the rising urban classes, and the first stirrings of doubt with regard to many traditional beliefs. [Back cover].