Le message et sa fiction: la communication par messager dans la littérature française des XIIe et XIIIe siècles

This reappraisal of the role of medieval messengers as "language conveyors" represents the first general survey of messengers, diplomatic envoys, and message scenes in the Medieval French literary corpus (12th- and 13th-century epics, romances, lyric poetry, and fabliaux). The author addresses a variety of issues central to the problematics of literature and culture in the French Middle Ages and beyond, e.g., the conveyance and distortion of oral messages; issues of authentifications, veracity, and falsification or written messages; and issues in writing and reading letters. he also discusses literary fiction as a craft representing a mixed message of truth and lies, and approaches the subject from a multidisciplinary perspective that includes literary analysis, socio-historical studies, and linguistics and communication theories.