"Bloody coup!", "Orde ribaude!", insults in the Middle Ages.
PURennes| N° d'inventaire | 10673 |
| Format | 15.5 x 24 |
| Détails | 199 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Rennes, 2007 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782753504011 |
Anyone today who would be called a "liar," a "redhead," a "glutton," "unfortunate," "proud," or "bloody" would no doubt laugh at the apostrophe, because it would be, for the man of our time, devoid of any critical content. Yet these terms constitute very serious invectives in the Middle Ages. To understand their negative scope, one must understand the exclusion criteria that the words cover. More than any other language, that of insult reveals the norms that draw the line between Good and Evil, the lawful and the forbidden.
This book invites the reader to discover the values and taboos shared by societies at the end of the Middle Ages. The first part presents the social and legal reality of insults, proposes a typology, analyzes their criminogenic power or their vindictive use, measures their relationship to sociability, to fame , to honor, and assesses the way in which they are uttered, received, judged, and penalized. The second part of the book is designed as a lexicon of the most commonly used or most unusual insulting words. The 82 entries explain the etymological meanings of the words and then the ethical and religious norms that give them an offensive specificity. By discovering the crude terms of medieval insults, the reader thus enters into the familiarity of the societies of this period and discerns in abyme the values and mentalities that make them original.
Anyone today who would be called a "liar," a "redhead," a "glutton," "unfortunate," "proud," or "bloody" would no doubt laugh at the apostrophe, because it would be, for the man of our time, devoid of any critical content. Yet these terms constitute very serious invectives in the Middle Ages. To understand their negative scope, one must understand the exclusion criteria that the words cover. More than any other language, that of insult reveals the norms that draw the line between Good and Evil, the lawful and the forbidden.
This book invites the reader to discover the values and taboos shared by societies at the end of the Middle Ages. The first part presents the social and legal reality of insults, proposes a typology, analyzes their criminogenic power or their vindictive use, measures their relationship to sociability, to fame , to honor, and assesses the way in which they are uttered, received, judged, and penalized. The second part of the book is designed as a lexicon of the most commonly used or most unusual insulting words. The 82 entries explain the etymological meanings of the words and then the ethical and religious norms that give them an offensive specificity. By discovering the crude terms of medieval insults, the reader thus enters into the familiarity of the societies of this period and discerns in abyme the values and mentalities that make them original.