Out of the Mouths of Babes - by Julie Singer

About the Book

"In this book, Julie Singer explores rich and strange moments in medieval literary texts where toddlers and infants-even fetuses-speak, and the important cultural work these texts perform. Through comparative readings of a wide array of literary, scientific, and encyclopedic sources-including treatises, practical manuals, miracle tales and devotional texts, and lyric and epic poetry-Singer shows how literary representations of infants, those who are ostensibly mute but are suddenly endowed with speech, can offer alternative ways to understand what it means to be human. Marshaling a wide array of critical tools borrowed from sound/voice studies and disability studies, from children's to religious studies, and from the medical humanities and the history of medicine, Singer shows that these moments of imagined speech from children too young to talk are far from trivial or whimsical episodes in imaginative literature. On the contrary, these texts allowed medieval writers to ask important philosophical questions about our notions of ability versus disability and the origins and symbolic logic of human language. In these tales from the speculative realms of fiction, Singer shows, medieval writers discovered a potent ethical tool. Infants offer what other human subjects cannot: a way of bypassing experientially-acquired knowledge, proceeding directly to universal truths. This study will be useful to a broad range of scholars beyond literary studies"--

Book Synopsis

A wide-ranging study of the rich questions raised by speaking infants in medieval French literature.

Medieval literature is full of strange moments when infants (even fetuses) speak. In Out of the Mouths of Babes, Julie Singer explores the unsettling questions raised by these events, including What is a person? Is speech fundamental to our humanity? And what does it mean, or what does it matter, to speak truth to power?

Singer contends that descriptions of baby talk in medieval French literature are far from trivial. Through treatises, manuals, poetry, and devotional texts, Singer charts how writers imagined infants to speak with an authority untainted by human experience. What their children say, then, offers unique insight into medieval hopes for universal answers to life's deepest wonderings.

Review Quotes

"Historical records about the lives of children are sparse, relegated as they often were to the domestic sphere. Nevertheless, as [Singer] shows, literary and religious texts offer glimpses of how young people were imagined. Her perceptive analysis reveals what these depictions say about medieval ideas of disability, personhood and truth. . . A pleasure to read, full of insights where one least expects them."-- "Times Literary Supplement"

"In this remarkable book, Singer shows how much infants, despite being defined as speechless, have to say about some of the most towering and complex intellectual problems facing medieval, and modern, society. Theoretically daring, cleverly structured, and engagingly written, Out of the Mouths of Babes teases out the surprising importance of an effectively ignored subject, and it does so with a unique combination of rigor, expertise, and creativity."--Charlie Samuelson, University of Colorado Boulder

"Meticulously researched and impressive in scope, Out of the Mouths of Babes investigates not only the place of childhood in medieval culture but also thornier, contemporary questions surrounding the beginnings of life, subjectivity, and personhood made more vibrant by Singer's careful exploration of their medieval stagings. Her work reshapes our understanding of infancy and childhood--even embryology--in the medieval period and helps us better understand what it means to be a person, in any age."--Megan Moore, University of Missouri

"Writing with verve and crystal-clear prose, Singer explores how literary representations of infancy may articulate concerns central to medieval understandings of voice, speech, and song; of the family and social relations; of law and justice; of disability, family, and care. Often surprising, always compelling, Out of the Mouths of Babes is both theoretically rich and a joy to read."--Peggy McCracken, University of Michigan

About the Author

Julie Singer is professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of two books, including Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor.