Obscène Moyen Âge? ed. by Nelly Labère (review)

This is not an easy book to read. Indeed, it is far from straightforward to evaluate, given its genesis in a long collaboration between scholars which has resulted in a volume that aims to be multi-authored beyond the usual separate chapters and unifying Introduction by an editor or editorial team. Much digging is needed before the reader is able to work out just what is being read, who wrote what, and how to go about tackling the volume. I would advise readers to take in ‘À la fin: genèse du projet’ and the ‘Carnet de route’ before beginning to read. The complex presentationisashame: the book doeshavemuchtooffer scholars of various fields. However, it comes across as a rather self-indulgent arrangement, doing nothing to enhance the team’s discussions and discoveries. In some sections (notably that on the fabliaux) the unnecessary air of self-indulgence continues with the use of innumerable clever but repetitive puns. The objective of this collective enquiry is to explore what was viewed as obscene in the Middle Ages and beyond, what different disciplines can offer such an investigation, and what precisely the word implies. There are many elements to enjoy, the discussions by Tania van Hemelryck, and Estelle Doudet and Jelle Koopmans being especially absorbing. Introductory essays to each section are immensely helpful, identifying the direction of what is to come and the section author(s), and providing an intellectual and methodological fil conducteur. Running heads are more valuable in this book than in most, since they provide the only other way of identifying authors (there are no author names in the Table of Contents). The book argues that, as a whole, it can be read as a counter-history of the ‘fable’ of an innocent Middle Ages (p. 343). It does not claim to rewrite the history of medieval obscenity; where it looks to innovate is in the methodology of academic exploration. The book’s greatest strength is perhaps its wide intellectual net, dismissing no approach or subject that may assist its quest to define and explore medieval obscenity. The pre-book period has clearly allowed for genuinely collaborative and comparative research. However, the style and approach of this collection might leave some readers with a feeling of exclusion — other than as observers — from an intellectually invigorating process. Among the gaps in the ample bibliography are Obscénités renaissantes, ed. by Hugh Roberts, Guillaume Peureux, and Lise Wajeman (Geneva: Droz, 2011), and Studies in Early Modern France, 14 (2010) (‘Obscenity’), both part of a similar intellectual and methodological process. This is a volume that merits the effort of patient medievalists, cultural historians interested in collaborative scholarly methodologies, and those seeking fresh insights afforded by defining medieval obscenity through the lens of a variety of disciplines. Notwithstanding the frustrations for this reader, the impressive scholarship is clear to see.