Paul Zumthor, (5 August 1915 – 11 January 1995) was a medievalist, literary historian, and linguist. He was a Swiss from

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Biography

He studied in Paris with Gustave Cohen and worked on French etymology with Walther von Wartburg. In studying medieval French poetry, he formulated the concept of ''mouvance'' (variability). He also emphasised "vocality" in medieval poetry, the place of the

human voice The human voice consists of sound Voice production, made by a human being using the vocal tract, including Speech, talking, singing, Laughter, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically ...

. He held two major professorial positions at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

from 1952 and at the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

from 1971 to 1980, when he later became emeritus. In 1992, he was made a Knight of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec ( French: ), also known as the Order of Quebec, is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governor Jean-Pierre Côté granted royal assent to the (Natio ...

. Zumthor was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 1969, this was changed into a foreign membership in 1971.

Legacy

Within

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

's novel '' Elizabeth Costello'', Zumthor is quoted at length by a character Emmanuel Egudu. Coetzee describes Zumthor as "a man from the snowy wastes of Canada, the great scholar of orality Paul Zumthor."J. M. Coetzee, ''Elizabeth Costello'': pg. 45 Vintage Books, 2004. Print.

Works

*''Merlin le prophète. Un thème de la littérature polémique, de l'historiographie et des romans'' (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) as ''Daily Life in Rembrandt's Holland'' (1962) translated by Simon Watson Taylor *''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''. 'La Complainte de la Cité de Liège', poème inédit. (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'' (1986) by Sarah White *''Introduction à la poésie orale'' (1983) as ''Oral Poetry: An Introduction'' (1990) by Kathryn Murphy-Judy *''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)

References

External links

(French language)

(French language) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zumthor, Paul 1915 births 1995 deaths Knights of the National Order of Quebec 20th-century Swiss historians Swiss male writers Swiss medievalists Swiss emigrants to Canada Academic staff of the Université de Montréal 20th-century Swiss male writers Writers from Geneva Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Biography

Legacy

Works

References

Further reading

External links