A special issue of Queeste, Journal of Medieval Literature in the Low Countries

In 2015, we concluded the introduction of our special issue on Literature and Multilingualism in the Low Countries with a renewal of Queeste’s ‘commitment to the varied and multilingual culture of the Low Countries’. And indeed, in the five years since then, Queeste has continued to publish scholarly articles on the production and circulation of literature in Dutch, French, and Latin, on translation, and on multilingual text collections and reading culture in the Low Countries.

While the editors applaud this continuous attention to multilingualism and language contact, we also feel that Queeste often approaches these issues from a distinctly Dutch-language perspective. This poses the risk of downplaying the actual impact of the literature in French (and Latin) that was written, copied and disseminated in the Low Countries. Following up on the earlier issue on multilingualism, we therefore aim to publish a new special issue of Queeste devoted solely to current scholarship on medieval Francophone literature in the Low Countries, to appear in 2021.

Since Queeste actively seeks to deliver the diversity that is implied in the journal’s subtitle, this special issue should be seen as another step towards a more balanced and accurate representation of the region’s multilingual literary culture. We therefore hope that this collection of essays will mark the beginning of a steady supply of articles on the medieval francophone literature produced and received in the Low Countries.

We invite reflections on any aspect of the authoring, copying, and reception of French literary texts in the area covering modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Northern France. As we aim for a wide and diverse panorama, we welcome general overviews as well as case studies, written from a varied range of theoretical and methodological perspectives (literary theory, codicology, stylometry, etc.), with a diachronic, comparative or contextualizing approach, and discussing texts from a broad spectrum of genres (lyric, epic, theatre, but also religious, moral-didactic, scientific, and practical writing).

Contributors should by no means feel confined to the textual production in the principally francophone regions and social circles of the Low Countries, but are encouraged to (also) discuss examples of French literature in reception contexts and parts of the area that have not been typically associated with francophone culture.

Abstracts (300 words or less) should be sent to the editorial board of Queeste before 30 April 2020 (b.j.m.caers@hum.leidenuniv.nl), after which authors will be notified by 15 May. Contributions of ca. 8000 words (including notes and bibliography) should be delivered before 31 October 2020 and will be, as always, subject to double blind peer review. Contributors are requested to follow the journal’s stylesheet (https://queeste.verloren.nl/guidelines).
For any further questions, please contact the editors of this special issue directly:

* Alisa van de Haar (a.d.m.van.de.haar@hum.leidenuniv.nl) or
* Dirk Schoenaers (d.j.c.schoenaers@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

Queeste is a multilingual journal and accepts articles written in Dutch, English, French, and German. Find out more at: https://queeste.verloren.nl/

Afbeelding: Franse vertaling van Speculum Historiale van Vincent de Beauvais, gemaakt in Brugge, rond 1480. Wikimedia