Gender and Voice in Medieval French Literature and Song - by Rachel May Golden & Katherine Kong (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume brings together literary and musical compositions of medieval France, identifying the use of voice in these works as a way of articulating gendered identities.

Book Synopsis

This volume brings together literary and musical compositions of medieval France, including the Occitanian region, identifying the use of voice in these works as a way of articulating gendered identities. The contributors to this volume argue that because medieval texts were often read or sung aloud, voice is central for understanding the performance, transmission, and reception of work from the period across a wide variety of genres.

These essays offer close readings of narrative and lyric poetry, chivalric romance, sermons, letters, political writing, motets, troubadour and trouvère lyric, crusade songs, love songs, and debate songs. Through literary, musical, and historiographical analyses, contributors highlight the voicing of gendered perspectives, expressions of sexuality, and power dynamics. The volume includes feminist readings, investigations of masculinity, queer theory, and intersectional approaches. The contributors interpret literary or musical works by Chrétien de Troyes, Aimeric de Peguilhan, Hue de la Ferté, the Chastelain de Couci, Jacques de Vitry, Christine de Pizan, Anne de Graville, Alain Chartier, and Giovanni Boccaccio, among others.

Gender and Voice in Medieval French Literature and Song offers a valuable interdisciplinary approach and contributes to the history of women's voices in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods. It illuminates the critical role of voice in negotiating culture, celebrating and innovating traditions, advancing personal and political projects, and defining the literary and musical developments that shaped medieval France.

Contributors: Lisa
Colton Emily J Hutchinson Daisy Delogu Tamara Bentley Caudill Katherine
Kong Meghan Quinlan Lydia M Walker Rachel May Golden Anna Kathryn Grau
Anne Adele Levitsky

Review Quotes

"The collected essays . . . take voice as the starting point
for a series of lively interrogations of the construction of gender in medieval
culture. . . . This volume seamlessly draws connections between literature and
song and provides a wonderful example of how new perspectives on medieval
material . . . can be found with the application of contemporary critical
tools."--Early Music America

"This is a volume that speaks as much for our current time
and preoccupations as for the medieval works examined: it leans as heavily on
the notion of disruption as the prevailing culture in the business world and
the arts."--Medieval Review