Philology: editing of texts [LROMB214]

Learning outcomes

Every edition of a literary text is the result of a choice. Students of Romance Studies must be able to unravel the reasons for this. This course aims to inform them of the procedures, methods and problems involved in editing the great texts of French literature, whether they date from the Middle Ages or the modern period.

Content

The Middle Ages are studied first. The procedures used by medievalists to find the authentic text of literary works, based on surviving manuscript copies, are explained: the method of the humanists, the method of Lachmann, the method of Dom Quentin, Bédier's methodological remarks, etc. The differences between the editing of a medieval text and the editing of a modern text are then considered. Numerous examples, drawn from the history of French literature in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, illustrate the development concerning modern texts.