French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Grigoriu, Talent / maltalent. La culture des émotions au seuil de la littérature française
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Talent / maltalent
The Culture of Emotions on the Threshold of French Literature
Brindusa Grigoriu
Brepols, 2018
330 p., 156 x 234 mm
ISBN: 978-2-503-57826-2
Languages: French, English, Old French
Paperback
Retail price: EUR 80,00 excl. tax
When confronting the medieval Romance manuscript, and the Francophone work emerging from it as it sheds its Latin skin, we are free to restore citizenship to emotion: even though the human beings who shaped the first French emotional frameworks have been dead for centuries, and even though the humanities routinely practice their scientific burial, there remains a place for lived fictional experience—an experience rich in possible lives. We need only interrogate the user's manual of affects as it emerges from each of these foundational narratives.
Contributing to the history of affects, this book offers a reinterpretation of early French narratives through the lens of the medieval emotional polarities of “talent” and “maltalent” (desire and ill-will/discontent).
At the time of their initial reception, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia, the Life of Saint Alexis, the Song of Roland, and the Roman de Thèbes were closed works, texts designed for pleasure. For the twenty-first-century reader, they become a delightful and exhilarating challenge. Thus, numerous rich and savory details emerge beyond the theological framework: Maximian successfully strikes his sword against Eulalia, Alexis's “maiden” bride manages to consummate her heavenly marriage, Charlemagne sulks at Gabriel, Jocasta flirts with the role of matchmaker to broker peace through love... and worlds collide in ambiguously possible ways.
The study examines emotional styles, emotive acts, affective norms, and the communities responsible for the “emotionologies” of these liminal texts of French literature, in which characters turn God into an increasingly stripped-down emotive act. From noun to interjection, from faith to emotion, it charts the history of a true emancipation, initiating a progressive desacralization of affects woven into the very fabric of the text.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Talent
I. Under the Sign of Talent: Historical Emotions
1. Talent for Writing
2. Talent for Truth
3. Talent for Literature
II. Man Before God: Hagiographic Emotions
1. A Virginal Emotionology: Eulalia
2. A Nuptial Emotionology: Alexis
3. Maltalent: The Emotionology of Roland
III. The Couple Before God: The First Romance Emotions
From Romance to the Novelesque: A New Emotional Culture
1. Oedipus and Jocasta: Family Loves
2. The Sons of Incest and the Failures of Love
3. The Daughters of Incest: Couples by God's Grace?
By Way of Conclusion: The Emotion of God on the Threshold of French Literature
Bibliography
The study of early vernacular texts often involves charting how vernacular literature slowly emerged from Latin traditions to establish its own modes of expression. By focusing on foundational works such as the Sequence of Saint Eulalia, the Life of Saint Alexis, the Song of Roland, and the Roman de Thèbes, the volume engages with the history of affects through specific medieval emotional polarities. Readers encounter analyses of emotional styles, emotive acts, affective norms, and the communities shaping the emotionologies of these texts, tracing how characters and narratives navigate the shifting boundaries between faith, desire, and divine frameworks.
Within the broader field of medieval literary studies, investigating the cultural history of emotions allows scholars to reconsider the reception of early texts beyond strict theological readings. This book addresses how the transition from noun to interjection and from faith to emotion reveals a progressive desacralization of affects woven into the fabric of early narrative prose. Readers interested in medieval literature, cultural history, and the history of affects may find this exploration of early French emotional frameworks relevant to their research.