International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2007 Abstracts

Known for his novels set in Turkey, Japan, and Tahiti, among other far-flung locales, French novelist Pierre Loti's taste for the medieval has been largely forgotten today, though his nineteenth-century contemporaries considered it as "exotic" as his travel narratives. The press was particularly fascinated by Loti's re-enactments of medieval festivities, notably the elaborate 1888 "Gothic dinner" he held in his exquisite fifteenth-century living room.  He designed every detail himself--from menus to costumes to entertainment--and the effect was such that journalists marveled at the ways in which this banquet brought the Middle Ages back to life.

Through a study of the numerous photographs and newspaper accounts related to Loti's medieval feast, this paper will analyze the festive courtly Middle Ages on display in his Rochefort home.  It will question the amount of press devoted to this elitist regional event. On the one hand, Loti's obsessive attention to detail appealed to contemporary fascination with the "real" Middle Ages, as portrayed in archival sources.  On the other, the novelist used his talents to concoct an imaginary version of the Middle Ages that would prove irresistible to the bourgeois appetite.