The Invention of the Eyewitness: Witnessing and Testimony in Early Modern FranceIn an examination of eyewitness travel writing in thirteenth- through sixteenth-century France, Andrea Frisch studies the figure of the witness at a historical juncture and in a cultural context in which that figure is generally thought to have begun to assume a recognizably modern form and function. Whereas most accounts of early modern travel literature tend to read modern presuppositions about witnessing and testimony back into the material, Frisch approaches the early modern witness in terms of the cultural legacy of the Middle Ages. Through primary readings in law and theology, Frisch documents the tension between the ethical witness (the characteristic witness of premodernity) and the epistemic witness (the modern witness) and explores the impact of that tension on the figure of the witness in pre- and early modern French-language travel literature. |
From inside the book
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Page 138
... Thevet's rhetoric has for his own project . Having den- igrated Thevet's attempt to use " nous " to refer to an ethical commu- nity , and not to a group of eyewitnesses , Léry takes pains to assure his readers that he will do no such ...
... Thevet's rhetoric has for his own project . Having den- igrated Thevet's attempt to use " nous " to refer to an ethical commu- nity , and not to a group of eyewitnesses , Léry takes pains to assure his readers that he will do no such ...
Page 144
... Thevet engaged in po - lemic against the " Lutheran heresy " ( and we may imagine that Casti - llo the Spaniard ... Thevet's repeated references to concrete artifacts of the New World which are physically inaccessible to the reader ...
... Thevet engaged in po - lemic against the " Lutheran heresy " ( and we may imagine that Casti - llo the Spaniard ... Thevet's repeated references to concrete artifacts of the New World which are physically inaccessible to the reader ...
Page 195
... Thevet , André . Les Singularités De La France Antarctique ( 1558 ) . Paris : Le Temps , 1982 . › André Thevet's North America : A Sixteenth - Century View . Ed . and tr . Arthur Phillips Stabler and Roger Schlesinger . Kingston , Ont ...
... Thevet , André . Les Singularités De La France Antarctique ( 1558 ) . Paris : Le Temps , 1982 . › André Thevet's North America : A Sixteenth - Century View . Ed . and tr . Arthur Phillips Stabler and Roger Schlesinger . Kingston , Ont ...
Common terms and phrases
accused addressee Alcofribas Alcofribas's audience authority bear witness Beaumanoir body Brazil Calvin Calvinist cannibales Cartier Catholic ceste chapter Christ Christian chroniques cited context courts credibility culture Derrida dialogue discourse duel early modern EARLY MODERN FRANCE ence epistemic essay ethical ethical relationship ethnography ethos Eucharist European evaluating explicitly eyewitness eyewitness testimony fact fait first-person firsthand experience folklaw France French Gargantua Gonneville Huguenot Imbert inquest inquisitional procedure Jean Jean de Léry judge juridical knowledge Kublai Khan Léry Léry's Léry's Histoire Mandeville Mandeville's Marco martyrs medieval medieval inquisition Montaigne Montaigne's mony narrative narrator ness oral ordinance Pantagruel party person perspective Polo Polo's prologue qu'il question Rabelais's readers refer rhetoric s'ils sacramental signs simply sixteenth century status story subornation tesmoings tesmoins testamur testi testify testimo testimonial oath Thevet tion transubstantiation truth Tupi Tupinamba ultimately Villegagnon voyage witness deposition witness testimony witness's World writing written