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 31
... called the " non - serious " per- formative in How to Do Things with Words . Granted , this is not the grammatical or semantic criterion Austin was after , but this high- lights the degree to which both Austin's investigations and ...
... called the " non - serious " per- formative in How to Do Things with Words . Granted , this is not the grammatical or semantic criterion Austin was after , but this high- lights the degree to which both Austin's investigations and ...
Page 75
... called Hearsay ( " ouy - dire " ) . Readers have often been nonplussed to find the likes of Ludovico de Varthema , Pedro Cabral , and Jacques Cartier among those tak- ing lessons in witnessing there . All of them were well - known eye ...
... called Hearsay ( " ouy - dire " ) . Readers have often been nonplussed to find the likes of Ludovico de Varthema , Pedro Cabral , and Jacques Cartier among those tak- ing lessons in witnessing there . All of them were well - known eye ...
Page 100
... called upon to testify in an increasingly abstract and anonymous context in which his ethical status gradually lost its feu- dal moorings , the very notion of ethos itself was in the process of being reformulated , and along with it ...
... called upon to testify in an increasingly abstract and anonymous context in which his ethical status gradually lost its feu- dal moorings , the very notion of ethos itself was in the process of being reformulated , and along with it ...
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