Joseph Bédier

Joseph Bédier (b. January 1 1864, Paris – d. August 29 1938, Le Grand-Serre) was an important 20th century French writer and scholar.

Background/education

Joseph Bédier was a son of lawyer Adolphe Bédier. Of Breton origin, Bédier spent his childhood in Réunion.

From 1889, he was a teacher of medieval French literature at various universities (1889-1891 Freiburg/Switzerland, c. 1903 Collège de France in Paris).

Accomplishments

Modern theories of the "fabliaux" and the "chansons de geste" are based on two of Bédier's studies.

Bédier revived interest in several important old French texts, including "Le roman de Tristan et Iseut" (1900), "La chanson de Roland" (1921), and "Les fabliaux" (1893). He was a member of the Académie française from 1920 until his death.

His "Tristan et Iseut" was translated into Cornish by A. S. D. Smith and into English by Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfeld.

Bédier was also joint editor of the two-volume "Littérature Française", one of the most valuable modern general histories of French literature.

Works of Joseph Bédier

*"Le lai de l’ombre" (1890)
*"Le fabliau de Richeut" (1891)
*"Les fabliaux, études de littérature populaire et d’histoire littéraire du Moyen Âge" (1893)
*"De Nicolao Museto (gallice Colin Muset), francogallico carminum scriptore" (1893)
*"Le roman de Tristan et Iseut" (1900)
*"Le roman de Tristan par Thomas" (2 vol., 1902-1905)
*"Études critiques" (1903)
*"Les deux poèmes de la folie Tristan" (1907)
*"Légendes épiques, recherches sur la formation des chansons de geste" (1908-1913)
*"Les chansons de croisade" (1909)
*"Les chansons de Colin Muset" (1912)
*"Les crimes allemands d’après les témoignages allemands" (1915)
*"Comment l’Allemagne essaie de justifier ses crimes?" (1915)
*"Joseph Bédier and Paul Hazard: Histoire de la littérature francaise. 2 Vol. (1923/24)
*"L’effort français" (1919)
*"La chanson de Roland" (critical edition, 1920)
*"La chanson de Roland" (after the Oxford manuscript, 1922)
*"Commentaires sur la chanson de Roland" (1927)

External links

* [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=535 More about Bédier] (in French)