French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Green (editor), Medieval Author in Medieval French Literature
Medieval and Renaissance Studies

GREEN, Virginia (editor), Medieval Author in Medieval French Literature, Palgrave Macmillan (Studies in Arthurian and Courtly Cultures), 2006, 272 p.

ISBN : 1403967717

Thirty-five years ago Roland Barthes proclaimed the death of the Author. For medievalists no death has been more timely. In medieval French literature there are no Authors, only authors — and enigmas. Is the medieval author a name or a function, an authority or an image? The way we answer such questions shapes how we think about names such as Jean de Meun, Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, Christine de Pizan, or lesser-known figures like Gerbert de Montreuil, Gautier de Coincy, Baudoin Butor or David Aubert. The essays in this volume create a prism through which to understand medieval authorship as a process and the medieval author as an agency in the making. This book will appeal to all those who are interested in theoretical approaches to authorship and could serve as an introduction to medieval French literature for sophisticated readers. For specialists it delivers an assessment of current theoretical and methodological issues in medieval studies.

CONTENTS :

Introduction: Saint Marcel, Asthmatic and Martyr; V.Greene
Authorial Relays: Continuing Chrestien's Conte du Graal; M.Bruckner
From One Mask to Another: The Vicissitudes of the Romance Author in the Time of Perceforest; A.Berthelot
Borrowing, Citation, and Authorship in Gautier de Coinci's Miracles de Nostre Dame; M.Switten
The Roman de la Rose as a Moebius Strip (On Interpretation); A.Leupin
The Names of the Rose; S.G.Nichols
Experiencing Self and Narrating Self in Medieval French Chronicles; S.Marnette
Neutrality Affects: Froissart and the Practice of Historiographic Authorship; Z.Stahuljak
Christine de Pizan's Status as Author in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Manuscript Miscellanies: The Evidence of Scribal Rubrics; K.Fresco
Author Portraits in the Late Middle Ages: Tombs in Majesty and Carnivalesque Epitaphs; J.Cerquiglini-Toulet
Face and Profile: The Author's Identity Gesture in the Late Middle Ages; D.Bohler
Medieval Bestsellers in the Age of Printing: Melusine and Olivier de Castille; A.Pairet
What Happened to Medievalists after the Death of the Author?; V.Greene

Virginie Greene is Professor of French in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard. She is the author of Le sujet et la mort dans La Mort Artu (2002). Her articles on medieval literature have appeared in Arthuriana, French Studies, Les Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, and Le Moyen Age. Greene has also published articles on nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature in Bulletin d’Informations Proustiennes and PMLA.

The concept of authorship underwent significant interrogation in twentieth-century literary theory, prompting medievalists to reevaluate how texts were produced, transmitted, and attributed before the modern era. In the study of medieval French literature, questions regarding names, functions, and authorities remain central to understanding canonical and lesser-known figures alike. Virginia Greene brings together a collection of essays that address these theoretical and methodological issues, examining how medieval authorship functions as an active process and an agency in the making rather than a fixed identity. Readers interested in theoretical approaches to medieval texts may find this volume relevant.

The contributions gathered here engage with a diverse array of materials, including romance, lyric poetry, historiography, and manuscript miscellanies. Authors and figures discussed across the volume include Jean de Meun, Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, and Christine de Pizan, alongside studies of visual traditions such as author portraits. The volume explores varied textual and visual practices within medieval French literature, engaging with current debates surrounding medieval literary production and providing material for specialists and sophisticated readers navigating the field.