Paul Zumthor: Between History and Literature

A critical study of the work The letter and the voice. Medieval "literature".

Abstract

Of the historiographical contributions that have converged to the recognition, within specialized circles, of orality as an inherent reality to all forms of «literature» in the Middle Ages, none proved as pivotal as that of Paul Zumthor, an eminent medievalist of the latter half of the 20^th century. In this essay we reflect, based on one of his seminal works, La lettre et la voix (1987), on the central importance assumed by the interdisciplinary dialogue between history and literary studies, both in the genesis of Zumthor’s concept of the Middle Ages, and in his research on the role of voice in medieval «literature». Thus, after situating the aforementioned work within the context of the 20^th century burgeoning of the first studies on medieval orality (which coincided with a reconnection between history and literary studies), and Zumthor's remarkable academic trajectory, this article analyzes the conceptions embodied within it concerning the idea of «medievalness», as well as the conceptual universe in which the Swiss medievalist’s study on the role of voice in medieval «literature» unfolds.