Out of the Mouths of Babes - Infant Voices in Medieval French Literature

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.

About the author

Julie Singer is professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of two books, including Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor.

Product details

• Authors: Julie Singer, Professor Julie Singer
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.03.2025
• EAN: 9780226838021
• ISBN: 978-0-226-83802-1
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Family; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Education, France, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / French, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval