Retelling the Tale: An Introduction to Medieval French Literature

by Simon Gaunt

This accessible introduction to medieval French literature concentrates on how to enjoy reading this lively and influential literary tradition. Rather than offering a conventional literary history, Simon Gaunt suggests strategies for reading medieval French texts, many of which retell traditional stories. A common misconception among students and dated textbooks is that medieval French literature is merely a 'recording' of an oral tradition. This book draws a picture of medieval literature, showing that medieval writers were in fact very aware that they were retelling tales in a new medium.

The author shows that, although many early texts allude to oral sources for these stories, they belong to a sophisticated and witty written culture that revels in knowledge of competing interpretations of the same story and in the intellectual games that writing enables. Retelling the Tale gives those coming to medieval French literature for the first time a clear sense of how stimulating and enjoyable these texts can be.

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2001

About the author

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Gaunt

Reviews

[Alys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for my medieval french paper and absolutely loved how accessible it was. It provides translations but also the original texts and explained terminology so it was genuinely an introduction. Reading the analysis before I read the text was amusing at times as I trued desperately to work out what on earth the plot must be. But most of them I had read reworkings or translations so it was fine. My only criticism was that returning continuously to the theme of 'retelling the tale' felt a little bit forced at times and although it was still interesting, it was the bits where he branched off which were particularly good. My vague knowledge of french hinted that some of the provided translations were not completely literal (I may be wrong). This is maybe good for a wider audience but I like to know what exactly I'm reading.
All in all, very good intro.