Out of the Mouths of Babes: Infant Voices in Medieval French Literature - Couverture souple

Singer, Julie

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0226838021 ISBN 13 : 9780226838021

Editeur : University of Chicago Press, 2025

Synopsis

A wide-ranging study of the rich questions raised by speaking infants in medieval French literature.

Medieval literature is full of strange moments when infants (even fetuses) speak. In Out of the Mouths of Babes, Julie Singer explores the unsettling questions raised by these events, including What is a person? Is speech fundamental to our humanity? And what does it mean, or what does it matter, to speak truth to power?

Singer contends that descriptions of baby talk in medieval French literature are far from trivial. Through treatises, manuals, poetry, and devotional texts, Singer charts how writers imagined infants to speak with an authority untainted by human experience. What their children say, then, offers unique insight into medieval hopes for universal answers to life’s deepest wonderings.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Julie Singer is professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of two books, including Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Chicago Press
• Date d'édition: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0226838021
• ISBN 13: 9780226838021
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 325
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible