Out of the mouths of babes : infant voices in medieval French literature / Julie Singer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Singer, Julie, 1978- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French literature--To 1500--History and criticism.

French literature.

Infants in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations, facsimiles

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Infant voices in medieval French literature

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2025.

Summary:

"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."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: The universal alterity of the infant

Voices from the womb

Signs of life

Nurture, the domestic, and the foreign

Interrogating innocence

Mute children in the time of miracle

Conclusion: Knowing infancy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource, publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780226838038

022683803X

OCLC:

1499929008