Paul Zumthor facts for kids
Paul Zumthor (born August 5, 1915 – died January 11, 1995) was a very smart Swiss man from Geneva. He spent his life studying the Middle Ages, how literature changed over time, and different languages.
About Paul Zumthor
Paul Zumthor studied in Paris, France. He learned about the history of French words with a famous linguist named Walther von Wartburg. When he studied old French poems, he came up with an important idea called mouvance. This means that poems often changed a little each time they were copied or performed, so there wasn't just one "perfect" version.
He also thought it was very important to remember that medieval poems were often sung or spoken aloud, not just read silently. He called this "vocality," focusing on the human voice and how it brought poems to life.
His Teaching Career
Paul Zumthor became a professor at important universities. He taught at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands starting in 1952. Later, from 1971 to 1980, he taught at the Université de Montréal in Canada. After that, he became a professor emeritus, which means he retired but was still honored by the university for his work.
In 1992, he received a special award called the Knight of the National Order of Quebec in Canada. It's a big honor for people who have done great things for Quebec.
In 1969, Paul Zumthor was chosen to be a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. This is a group of very smart people in the Netherlands. Later, in 1971, his membership changed to a foreign member, as he was living in Canada.
His Impact
Paul Zumthor's ideas were very important in the world of literature. For example, in the novel Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee, a character talks a lot about Zumthor's work. Coetzee described Zumthor as "a man from the snowy wastes of Canada, the great scholar of orality Paul Zumthor." "Orality" means the study of spoken traditions, like stories and poems passed down by word of mouth.
Books by Paul Zumthor
Paul Zumthor wrote many books about his studies. Here are some of them:
- Merlin le prophète (1943)
- Antigone ou l'espérance (1945)
- Victor Hugo poète de Satan (1946)
- Saint Bernard de Clairvaux (1947) with Albert Béguin
- Positions actuelles de la linguistique et de l'histoire littéraire (1948)
- Lettres de Héloïse et Abélard (1950)
- Abréviations composées (1951)
- L'Inventio dans la poésie française archaïque (1952)
- Miroirs de l'Amour. Tragédie et Préciosité (1952)
- Histoire littéraire de la France médiévale (VIe-XIVe siècles) (1954)
- Charles le Chauve (1957)
- La griffe, Paris (1957)
- Précis de syntaxe du francais contemporain (1958) with Walther von Wartburg
- La Vie quotidienne en Hollande au temps De Rembrandt (1960) (translated as Daily Life in Rembrandt's Holland)
- Les Contrebandiers (1962)
- Langue et techniques poétiques à l'époque romane (XIe - XIIIe siècles) (1963)
- Un prêtre montheysan et le sac de Liège en 1468 (1963) editor with Willem Nooman
- Guillaume le Conquérant et la civilisation de son temps (1964)
- Roman et Gothique: deux aspects de la poésie médiévale (1966)
- Essai de poétique médiévale (1972)
- Langue, texte, énigme (1975)
- Anthologie des grands rhétoriqueurs (1978)
- La Masque et la lumière (1978)
- Parler du Moyen âge (1980) (translated as Speaking of the Middle Ages)
- Introduction à la poésie orale (1983) (translated as Oral Poetry: An Introduction)
- La Poésie et la Voix dans la civilisation médiévale (1984)
- Jeux de mémoire: aspects de la mnémotechnie médiévale (1986) with Bruno Roy
- Midi le Juste (1986) (poems)
- La Fête des fous (1987) (novel)
- La Lettre et la Voix (1987)
- Point de fuite (1989)
- Écriture et nomadisme: entretiens et essais (1990)
- La Traversée (1991)
- La mesure du monde (1993)
- La Porte à côté (1994)
- Fin en Soi (1996) (poems)
- Babel ou l'inachèvement (1997)
See also
In Spanish: Paul Zumthor para niños
