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Jeanette Patterson

Associate Professor; TRIP Director, Associate Professor; Associate Professor, Undergraduate Director of Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Romance Languages and Literatures; Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP); Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Background

Jeanette Patterson is affiliated with and teaches courses in French, TRIP (Translation Research and Instruction Program), Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and Religious Studies.

Her research primarily focuses on medieval French literature and Bible translation, with secondary interests in transhistorical language politics, digital humanities, political rewritings of biblical narratives, taboos and (self-)censorship in translation, and gender in translation. Her book Making the Bible French: The ā€˜Bible historialeā€™ and the Medieval Lay Reader, published by the University of Toronto Press in 2022, concerns the most prominent medieval translation of the Bible into French, Guyart des Moulinsā€™s 1295 Bible historiale, its manuscript tradition and its cultural import.

In addition to that book and several articles and projects related to the Bible historiale and its engagement with medieval politics, theology, art and literature, she has published multiple articles and book chapters on Christine de Pizanā€™s translations and one on 20th-century language politics. She has also co-edited two books, Rethinking the New Medievalism and Paroles et images sur le commencement: le discours des peintures de la Chapelle de MerlĆ©ac and has served as the Manuscript Studies Editor and then Open Issue Editor of Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures from its founding in 2012 to 2024.

Publications

  • Making the Bible French: The Bible historiale and the Medieval Lay Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022.
  • ā€ĀŁ“Ē±ō“Ē³¾“Ē²Ō au feminin: (Re)translating Proverbs 31 in Christine de Pizanā€™s CitĆ© des dames.ā€Mediaevalia 36/37 (2015/2016), special issue, "Medieval Futures," guest-editor, Marilynn Desmond. 353-392.
  • ā€œStolen Scriptures: The Bible historiale and the Hundred Yearsā€™ War,ā€ Rethinking the Boundaries of Patronage. Ed. Deborah L. McGrady. Special issue of Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval
    Cultures
    2:2 (Fall 2013), 155-180.
  • ā€œInterpreting Jobā€™s Silence in the Bible historiale,ā€ Modern Language Notes 127:5 Supplement (December 2012), S217-S242.
  • Paroles et images sur le commencement : le discours des peintures de la Chapelle de MerlĆ©ac. Co-edited with Xavier-Laurent Salvador. OrlĆ©ans: Paradigme, 2019.


Education

  • Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University
  • M.A. Tulane University
  • B.A. Tulane University

Research Interests

  • Medieval French Bible translation and adaptation
  • Taboos in translation
  • Christine de Pizan and translation
  • Political uses of biblical narratives
  • Manuscript studies

Teaching Interests

  • Taboos in Translation (TRIP/LING)
  • Reimagining the Bible (MDVL/COLI)
  • Politics of the French Language (FREN/TRIP)
  • Among the Animals (FREN)
  • French Translation (FREN/TRIP)

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