“Formal poetry in France in the Middle Ages” [1946], translated by Jeff Rider

Abstract

This is the first ever English-language translation of a lecture delivered by the Belgian medievalist Robert Guiette, then working at the University of Ghent, at the beginning of 1946. Entitled “D’une poésie formelle en France au Moyen Age”, this was one of Guiette’s most influential pieces, and presented his ideas – that announced Zumthor’s some decades later – about a medieval poetry based on a formal aesthetics.