The discovery of the New World by Columbus in 1492 led to a general change in the world“s perception and to a flourishing interest in European travel literature. As part of this globalization, a peculiar collection of fictitious Marotic epistles was published anonymously in Toulouse in 1537. In his publication “ Lexikalisches zur fiktiven Reiseliteratur der beginnenden französischen Vorklassik„, published in October 2022 by GRIN Publishing, Volker Mecking examines the epistles lexical peculiarities.
The French vocabulary of the pre-classic period (1500-1650) is not a closed system. Rather, it presents a dynamic transitional phase characterized by a great lexical change. The seemingly inconspicuous text „Letres des ysles et terres nouvellement trouvees par les Portugalois“ is a fictional travelogue of three Frenchmen on Sumatra. The work contains new lexical vocabulary and is therefore a welcome addition to the rather incomplete relevant historical French lexicography. Volker Meching“s lexical study attempts to fill the gaps in the documentation.
Only a single edition of the text has survived
„Letres des ysles et terres nouvellement trouvees par les Portugalois“ is a text of Marotic character, which belongs to the segment of nonsense literature (coq-à-l“ne). It allows significant new insights into the history of French because of its neologisms, loanwords, regionalism, archaism, and intertextuality. The lexical study „Lexikalisches zur fiktiven Reiseliteratur der beginnenden französischen Vorklassik“ is based on the French etymological dictionary (FEW) and the Dictionnaire du moyen- franais (DMF). Additionally, it allows an investigation into the unanswered question of the localization of the anonymous author(s). Mecking“s work is therefore of relevance to French-Romanists in the fields of literature and linguistics, but also to linguists, philologists, lexicologists, and everyone who is interested.
About the author
Volker Mecking is a professor of French Language Studies at the Catholic University of Lyon and has already published several publications in Renaissance Medicine.
The book was published in October 2022 by GRIN (ISBN: 978-3-346-74644-3)
Direct link to the publication: https://www.grin.com/document/1278747
Free review copies can be obtained directly from the publisher at presse@grin.com
GRIN Verlag has been publishing academic e-books and books since 1998. We publish all scientific papers: term papers, bachelor theses, master theses, dissertations, specialist books and much more.
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