Truth and the Heretic: Crises of Knowledge in Medieval French Literature - Hardcover

Sullivan, Professor Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226781690 ISBN 13: 9780226781693

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2005

Synopsis

In the Middle Ages, the heretic, more than any other social or religious deviant, was experienced as an imaginary construct. Everyone believed heretics existed, but no one believed himself or herself to be a heretic, even if condemned as such by representatives of the Catholic Church. Those accused of heresy, meanwhile, maintained that they were the good Christians and their accusers were the false ones.

Exploring the figure of the heretic in Catholic writings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as well as the heretic's characterological counterpart in troubadour lyrics, Arthurian romance, and comic tales, Truth and the Heretic seeks to understand why French literature of the period celebrated the very characters who were so persecuted in society at large. Karen Sullivan proposes that such literature allowed medieval culture a means by which to express truths about heretics and the epistemological anxieties they aroused. 
The first book-length study of the figure of the heretic in medieval French literature, Truth and the Heretic explores the relation between orthodoxy and deviance, authority and innovation, and will fascinate historians of ideas and literature as well as scholars of religion, critical theory, and philosophy.

About this title

About the Author

Karen Sullivan is associate professor of literature in the Division of Languages and Literature at Bard College and the author of The Interrogation of Joan of Arc.

Review

"Sullivan examines both didactic and literary authors, asserting that the heretic in medieval Europe was an imaginary construct. No one ever considered him- or herself a heretic, but orthodoxy felt the need to protect itself against those whose beliefs suggested that sacred texts could propose multiple meanings....Superbly documented, this book proposes a fascinating way of revealing the medieval mind. For didacticliterature to acknowledge any merit in heretics was unthinkable, but in literary characters the secretiveness and trickery often associated with heretics were delightful....Highly recommended."—Choice (Choice)

Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies (MLA)

"Fascinating, insightful, and highly provocative. . . . Literary analysis sheds important light on fundamental epistemological questions, whether we consider hereticism as the basis upon which these texts were built, or whether we simply accept the criticism voiced in them at face value." (Albrecht Classen Mediaevistik)

"An intelligent, provocative, and well-written book. It comes as an answer to the challenge to historiography . . . what if history is shaped primarily by the things that cannot be spoken of?" (Sarah Kay Speculum)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0226781690
• ISBN 13: 9780226781693
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288