Michelle SZKILNIK

The Jouvencel, composed by Jean de Bueil around 1460-1468, is a manual of war and an apology of the military career in the form of a romance partially inspired by the life of his author, a former soldier and marshal of France who was one of Joan of Arc’s companions in Orléans. Preserved in 16 manuscripts, copied for some of the greatest patrons (and men of war) of the 15^th and early 16^th c., the Jouvencel was greatly appreciated in the middle ages and beyond, as testified by the iconographic programs preserved in manuscripts.

Michelle Szkilnik’s project aims at understanding and assessing the influence of the Jouvencel on the discourse of war, glory and heroism, and trace the after-life of a text that was read by Ercilla, author of the Araucana, quoted by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and extensively used by Louis Aragon. While focusing on the Jouvencel, her book will also be a reflection on the afterlife of medieval texts.

A former student of the École Normale Supérieure (Paris), agrégée (Lettres Modernes), Michelle Szkilnik holds a doctorate from the Sorbonne Nouvelle. She has taught for 10 years in the USA (Smith College, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin-Milwaukee), then in Nantes as a Maître de conférence. After defending her Habilitation at Paris 3, she was full professor at the University of Nantes, then at the Sorbonne Nouvelle (since 2005). Since then, she has held various temporary positions outside of France (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Humanities Center at Oregon State University, University of Oxford/Wadham College, Institute for Advanced Studies in Constance).

She was the director of her research unit from 2007 to 2014, and of the Centre d’études du Moyen Âge at Paris 3, of which she is still the co-director.

She is interested in the image of chivalry in medieval literature, especially in the 15^th c., in war and violence in the Middle Ages, in epics as well as chronicles and later romances, as well as the concept of conquest or reconquest (crusading literature in the holy land or in Spain and conquistadores in the new world).

SZKILNIK, Michelle. Le Jouvencel  de Jean de Bueil, édition critique, Paris, Champion, coll. Classiques Français du Moyen Âge, 2018.

SZKILNIK, Michelle. Une femme et la guerre à la fin du Moyen Âge. Le Livre des faits d’armes et de chevalerie, dir. in collaboration with DEMARTINI, D., LE NINAN, Cl., PAUPERT, A., Paris, Champion, coll. Études Christiniennes, 2016.

SZKILNIK, Michelle. « The Just Captain in the Jouvencel by Jean de Bueil », in Power and Justice in Medieval French culture: Textual and Visual Representations (BROWN-GRANT, R., HEDEMANN, A. et RIBÉMONT, B.), Farnham, Surrey, Ashgate, 2015, p. 65-87.

SZKILNIK, Michelle. Jean de Saintré : une carrière chevaleresque au XV^e siècle, Genève, Droz, coll. Publications Romanes et Françaises, 2003.

SZKILNIK, Michelle. L’Archipel du Graal, Etude de l’Estoire del Saint Graal, Genève, Droz coll. Publications Romanes et Françaises, 1991.