Cynthia J. Brown

Research Professor Emerita

Specialization

Distinguished Professor of French
Affiliate of Comparative Literature
Affiliate of Film Studies
Affiliate of Medieval Studies Program
http://medievalstudies.ucsb.edu/

Education

  • 1973-78: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
  • 1976-77: École Normale Supérieure, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
  • 1971-73: M.A., University of California, Berkeley
  • 1966-70: B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, University of New Hampshire
  • 1968-69: Université de Dijon, France

Bio

Academic Distinctions and Awards

  • 2016: Borchard Foundation International Symposium Grant

  • 2013: Chevalier des Palmes Académiques, French Government

  • 2009-2012: Partner University Fund / French American Cultural Exchange: Collaborative Interdisciplinary Project with Anne-Marie Legaré, Université de Lille III

  • Jun-Jul 2008: Borchard Foundation International Symposium Grant

  • Summer 2006: National Endowment for the Humanities Stipend Award

  • 2006-2007: University of California President's Fellowship for the Humanities
  • Fall 2003: Camargo Foundation Fellowship
  • June 2000: Borchard Foundation International Symposium Grant
  • Spring 1999: Borchard Foundation Scholar-in-Residency Grant
  • 1996 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies, Modern Language Association
  • 1987-1988: American Council of Learned Societies Grant
  • Summer 1986: National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar Grant
  • Summer 1980: National Endowment for the Humanities Stipend Award

 

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Research

Research Interests

  • Late medieval/early Renaissance French literature and culture
  • Libraries of late medieval women
  • The transition from manuscript to print culture
  • Issues of authority and authorship
  • The relationship between text and image
  • The book as cultural artifact
  • Text-editing

Projects

Current Research/Work in Progress

  • Currently working on Volume IV of a critical edition of Pierre Gringore's works for Éditions Droz
  • Also working on early Renaissance French-Italian cultural relations and female patronage.

Publications

Major Publications

  • The Shaping of History and Poetry in Late Medieval France: Propaganda and Poetic Expression in the Works of the Rhétoriqueurs. Birmingham: Summa, 1985.
  • Poets, Patrons, and Printers: Crisis of Authority in Late Medieval France. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995. Awarded the MLA Scaglione Prize in 1996.
  • Special issue of The Journal of the Early Book Society: Women and the Book Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern France, co-edited with Martha Driver, Volume IV (2001).
  • The Cultural and Political Legacy of Anne de Bretagne: Negotiating Convention in Books and Documents (edited volume).  Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2010.
  • The Queen's Library: Image-Making at the Court of Anne of Brittany, 1477-1514.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
  • Les femmes, l’art et la culture en Europe entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance / Women, Art and Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe (co-edited with Anne-Marie Legaré).  Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016.
  •  
  • Special issue of Le Moyen Francais: Manuscript to Print, Print to Digital: Editions in Performance and Performance in Editions in Late Medieval and Renaissance France (1400-1550) (edited volumes), Volumes 81-82 (2018).
  • And numerous articles on 15th- and 16th-century literature and culture

Critical Editions

  • André de la Vigne's Ressource de la Chrestienté (1494). Montreal: CERES, 1989.
  •  
  • Critical edition of Pierre Gringore's Oeuvres, Volume I (Oeuvres rédigées sous le règne de Louis XII). Geneva: Éditions Droz, 2003
  • .
  • Critical edition of Pierre Gringore's Oeuvres, Volume II (Entrées royales à Paris de Marie d'Angleterre (1514) et de Claude de France (1517), Geneva: Éditions Droz, 2005.
  •  
  • Critical edition of Pierre Gringore's Oeuvres, Volume III (Les Oeuvres moralisatrices [1499-1510]), Geneva: Éditions Droz, forthcoming in 2020.

 

Courses

Course Number Title
Fall 2017 Fr 153A Love, Marriage and Adultery in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Literature (in English)
Fall 2017 Fr 101A Literary and Cultural Analysis (Medieval and Renaissance Periods)
Spring 2017 Fr 156C Modern Images of the Middle Ages:  The Intersection of Text, History and Film (in English)
Spring 2017 Fr 197 Senior Seminar (Medieval Texts, Modern Criticism and Film)
Winter 2017 Fr 232B Literature and the Visual Arts: Female Patronage in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: Translation, Adaptation and the Illustrated Book
Fall 2016 Fr 148C Women in the Middle Ages (in French)
Fall 2015 Fr 101A Literary and Cultural Analysis (Medieval and Renaissance Periods)
Fall 2015 Fr 153A Love, Marriage and Adultery in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Literature (in English)
Spring 2015 Fr 197 Senior Seminar (Les Lais de Marie de France)
Fall 2014 Fr 101A Literary and Cultural Analysis (Medieval and Renaissance Periods)
Fall 2014 Fr 155A Women in the Middle Ages (in English)
Winter 2015 Fr 156C Modern Images of the Middle Ages: The Intersection of Text, History and Film (in English)
Winter 2014 Fr 231J /C Lit 200/Fr 197/Fr 198

The Book and Literary Production: The Intersection of Literary Artistry and the Publication Trade in Europe from the 15th to the 21st Century (Collaborative Graduate Seminar)

Winter 2014 Fr 148C Women in the Middle Ages (in French)
Fall 2013 Fr 101A Literary and Cultural Analysis (Medieval and Renaissance Periods)
Fall 2013 C Lit 30A Love, Marriage and Adultery in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance (in English)
Spring 2013 Fr 155A Women in the Middle Ages (in English)
Winter 2013 Fr 197 Senior Seminar (Le Moyen Âge : Textes et Cinéma)
Winter 2013 Fr 156C

Modern Images of the Middle Ages: The Intersection of Text, History and Film (in English)

Fall 2013 Fr 101 Literary and Cultural Analysis (Medieval and Renaissance Periods)
Fall 2013 Fr 153A

Love, Marriage and Adultery in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance (in English)

Winter 2012 F4 148C Women in the Middle Ages (in English)
Winter 2012 Fr 153A

Channel Crossings: Medieval Borders and Alliances in Britain and France (co-taught in English)

Fall 2011 Fr 156C

Modern Images of the Middle Ages:  The Intersection of Text, History and Film (in English)

Fall 2011 Fr 227A Introduction to Old French
Spring 2011  FR 155A

Women in the Middle Ages (in French)

Spring 2011  Fr 197 Senior Seminar (Reines littéraires, historiques et mythologiques au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance)
Winter 2011  Fr 232B

Literature and the Visual Arts: Le mécénat des femmes en Europe entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance : Traductions, Adaptations, Commentair