The Modern Medievalist: An Interview with Julien R. Stout

Oct. 4, 2024

With the school year entering its second month, we sat down for an introductory chat with Prof. Julien R. Stout, a French medievalist and the French & Italian Department’s newest faculty member. An expert in the “birth of the French author,” the subject of his forthcoming monograph L’auteur retrouvé: l’avènement des premiers recueils à collections auctoriales de langue française au Moyen Âge central (Droz), Prof. Stout is currently working on multilingualism in Jewish and Christian sun poetry involving Old French, as well as the English version of his first book, to be titled Sins and Signatures: An Archaeology of the French Author.

To begin at the beginning, you’re here as our new French medievalist. How did you get interested in the French medieval?

Well, it probably has to do with my being French-American. I was born in the States but moved to France when I was four years old and grew up in a town called Poitiers, which is known for its rich medieval heritage—battles, ruins, and so on. I still remember going on a field trip to Fontevraud Abbey where we did medieval (or medieval-like) calligraphy and sculptures, and I guess that played an important part in just getting me used to the Middle Ages. But in high school, when I had my first exposure to the story of the Holy Grail, that was an eye-opener for me. It was so mysterious, very other yet very modern, and I really liked that. There was a moment at university when I thought I might instead study the literature of Martinique for its linguistic creativity, but I felt like the Middle Ages needed me more in a way. It's beautiful literature, so rare and so other, so remote. And it’s the origins of the French language. So I came for the modernity and I stayed for the otherness.

I find that so interesting because just being at Poitiers, I thought, would inundate you with the medieval. But reading the Grail legend, handling a medieval chisel just made it resonate in a new way?

Sure! It’s the hands-on experience of it. When you have stones and techniques and discourses and works of art that whisper to you from the centuries, there’s a kind of mystical mystery it creates. It’s almost moral, almost an ethical call to listen. I actually said that during my job interview. When you study old texts, old documents, they whisper to you in a nearly literal way. But that’s also what comes of taking the time to think about how past generations, past human beings thought certain things, certain universal emotions—but from a radically different perspective, in a language that is the same (it's still French) but also sounds and feels so different. So it’s the culmination of the two, the universality through the difference. You’re looking at things through a glass darkly.

So even now that you know it so well, there’s still an alluring bizarrerie to the Middle Ages.

More than ever. It’s like studying prehistory. The more you know about it, of course there are some certainties, but there’s always a possibility of finding a new corpus that will undo everything you thought was certain. What does it mean to listen to a civilization that believes in angels, or that believes all sorts of strange things about the human psyche, and comes up with questions we don’t have answers for? That’s what’s so exciting!

I see! So you’ve mentioned both your interest in the origins of French and your interest in literature from Martinique. Right now, for your first class at Princeton, you’re teaching A Critical History of the French Language [FRE 412]. Would that seem to bridge the two?

Well, yes, but the way we’re doing it is really a multisensory, dynamic, and critical approach. Not just the linear history of how Latin slowly turned into French which turned into a global language, but also what are the documents that allow us to think critically about how it happened, and the sociological, cultural, and epistemological implications of looking into the history of French as a live, lively language very much oriented towards the future. I really want my students to understand the origins of this global language—hence the importance of being a specialist in the Middle Ages, where the French language started—but also always having in mind this contemporary, global, decentered approach where French is not only the language of France but a language that belongs to so many people. I actually started my first class with an analysis of the controversy surrounding Aya Nakamura’s performance at the Olympic opening ceremony. She happens to be Franco-Malian and has been told the language she uses is not French. But who gets to say what is French and what is not? And how do we objectively describe the phenomena of borrowings and linguistic evolution? That’s what I want people to experience in my class.

Well, I think Princeton students will be very glad to have you.

I’m glad you said that because Princeton is one of the only universities to look specifically for a French medievalist. And, you know, that’s a very strong standpoint. It shows Princeton’s dedication to not letting the founding moments of French literature be a sidenote to history but stay at the center of the curriculum, and to seeing that the future of the French language can come from studying its past. And—this is going to sound forced but it’s actually true—my interview visit was so wonderful. Not only is there this great feeling of intelligence inundating the campus, but there’s this promising aspect of exchange with good people who are good at what they do. I think very few institutions other than Princeton provide such opportunities to do that.

That’s wonderful to hear and of course what we want Princeton to be for everyone working here. So I’m extra glad to know it’s particularly true for Medieval Studies.

It’s key to what I hope to do. I really want to show that medieval studies are relevant, not only to the political kind of debates in the contemporary era, but specifically for what other conversations they can bring. Just as it’s so important to pay attention to dying ecosystems, I think it’s just as important to preserve ancient civilizations, ancient modes of writing, of feeling, of touching. Because once we stop paying attention to them and spending the resources to listen to them, they disappear forever. And that's a tragedy, because the diversity of the historic past becomes unavailable and it's that diversity that we need. For that reason, I'm also interested very much in the global Middle Ages, the global connections that happen in the Mediterranean, and even comparatively in China and in the American continents, where the Middle Ages were used as a tool of projecting a past that happened somewhere else. And I want a critical approach to that as well, and to integrate it in my approach to the Middle Ages, and how I give that understanding to my students.

What advice would you give to a student who’s interested in studying what you study?

Be intellectually daring. Do not be intimidated by what you think is required. Every expert was and still is terrified, so be bold. Study these texts, read them until you start understanding them, and then dare to have ideas. But then you have to channel that thirst for new knowledge into hard work. Not to imprison your creative self, but to see that sometimes there’s a freedom and beauty that comes through practice, like with an instrument. So it takes daring, a bit of sacrifice and hard work, and then communicating with mentors. Because remember, you’re not a genius. The collective is the genius. You bring your good ideas into the conversation and that’s how they get better. It’s because the specialists in my field were kind enough to open the door that I was able to refine my research and be a part of the conversation. And I believe so strongly in that.