Close
Description
We will examine in this module three criminal cases from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the series of texts that each of them generated in the period: (i) the 鈥榓ffaire Martin Guerre鈥� (1560), a famous case of imposture and stolen identity in sixteenth-century southwestern France; (ii) the trial of Louis Gaufridy, a priest burnt at the stake in 1611 for having allegedly caused the demonic possession of two young nuns; (iii) the brutal assassination of a young and rich aristocrat, the Marquise de Ganges, by her brothers-in-law (1667). We will read and discuss a wide range of (short) accounts of these three faits divers: manuscript court records, popular pamphlets, collections of histoires tragiques (Rosset) and causes c茅l猫bres (Gayot de Pitaval), and a short novel (Sade). This will allow us to explore the many forms taken in the early modern period by a thriving litt茅rature du crime, at the intersection of law and literature. We will also look, beyond the early modern period, at modern reconstructions of these stories offered by historians and filmmakers 鈥� eg. the 1982 film Le Retour de Martin Guerre, and Natalie Zemon Davis鈥檚 historical study of the case (The Return of Martin Guerre, 1984).
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
听