{"product_id":"vernacular-voices-language-and-identity-in-medieval-french-jewish-communities-hardback-9780812242508","title":"Vernacular Voices; Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities (Hardback) 9780812242508","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eVernacular Voices\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eLanguage and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eKirsten A. Fudeman (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812242508\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 6 July 2010\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e272 pages, 8 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.574 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eVernacular Voices\u003c\/i\u003e marks Kirsten Fudeman as a scholar whose work should be followed closely and learned from. She has written a pathbreaking book that displays her linguistic expertise and her impressive methodological sophistication.\" (Elisheva Baumgarten, author of \u003ci\u003eMothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe\u003c\/i\u003e) \"This study by a fine scholar on the topic of the role of the vernacular in medieval French Jewry is a fascinating and an enlightening volume. . . . A significant contribution to medieval Jewish history and to the study of the popular religion of the period.\" (\u003ci\u003eReligious Studies Review\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eA thirteenth-century text purporting to represent a debate between a Jew and a Christian begins with the latter's exposition of the virgin birth, something the Jew finds incomprehensible at the most basic level, for reasons other than theological: \"Speak to me in French and explain your words!\" he says. \"Gloss for me in French what you are saying in Latin!\" While the Christian and the Jew of the debate both inhabit the so-called Latin Middle Ages, the Jew is no more comfortable with Latin than the Christian would be with Hebrew. Communication between the two is possible only through the vernacular.\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eVernacular Voices\u003c\/i\u003e, Kirsten Fudeman looks at the roles played by language, and especially medieval French and Hebrew, in shaping identity and culture. How did language affect the way Jews thought, how they interacted with one another and with Christians, and who they perceived themselves to be? What circumstances and forces led to the rise of a medieval Jewish tradition in French? Who were the writers, and why did they sometimes choose to write in the vernacular rather than Hebrew? How and in what terms did Jews define their relationship to the larger French-speaking community?\u003cbr\u003e Drawing on a variety of texts written in medieval French and Hebrew, including biblical glosses, medical and culinary recipes, incantations, prayers for the dead, wedding songs, and letters, Fudeman challenges readers to open their ears to the everyday voices of medieval French-speaking Jews and to consider French elements in Hebrew manuscripts not as a marginal phenomenon but as reflections of a vibrant and full vernacular existence. Applying analytical strategies from linguistics, literature, and history, she demonstrates that language played a central role in the formation, expression, and maintenance of medieval Jewish identity and that it brought Christians and Jews together even as it set them apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotes on Translations and Transcription and Typological Conventions\u003cbr\u003e List of Abbreviations\u003cbr\u003e Introduction: The Medieval French Jewish Community in Its Linguistic Context\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Language and Identity\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. Speech and Silence, Male and Female in Jewish-Christian Relations: Blois, 1171\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Texts of Two Colors\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. Hebrew-French Wedding Songs: Expressions of Identity\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue\u003cbr\u003e Appendices\u003cbr\u003e 1. Hebraico-French Glosses and Texts\u003cbr\u003e 2. The Medieval Jewish Wedding Song 'Uri liqra'ti yafah, gentis kallah einoreie\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52555710791960,"sku":"9780812242508","price":48.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/vernacular-voices-language-and-identity-in-medieval-french-jewish-communities-hardback-9780812242508","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}