There is an intriguing misfit between Barthes's claim that the authoris deadand medieval textsfor whom theauthor may never haveexisted. A dozen leading French medievalists reflect here on our desire nevertheless to recognize the authors of the works we read - or on their desire to be recognized by us.Some essays address the play of authorial singularity and multiplicity; others the interplay between effacement and self-staging; yet others thegenesis of the medieval text. Greene's nuanced opening and closing remarksmaintain focus and pacein this excellent and diversevolume. - Sarah Kay, Princeton University
This provocative collection of essays explores authorial agency in a variety of medieval French texts from the twelfth through sixteenth centuries. Contributors argue for the ways in which authorial identity is debated, contested, and constructed through the reuse and continuation of earlier texts, through contradiction and even violence, and through claims to authority, neutrality, and truth. This extended interrogation of medieval authorship offers important new understandings of medieval literary practices and of the textual negotiations that define the medieval author. - Peggy McCracken, University of Michigan