Uses and meanings of the word crusade in the late Middle Ages

Description du projet

Histoire du concept de croisade au Moyen Âge

La polysémie du terme «croisade» dans les textes médiévaux reflète les différentes réalités qui donnaient un sens et une unité à la diversité grandissante des activités de croisade. Malgré ses rares apparitions en toutes lettres, le terme «croisade» a donné naissance à une série de catégories linguistiques. Celles-ci indiquent la manière dont la croisade était conceptualisée et la mesure dans laquelle cette conceptualisation était répandue et acceptée. Le projet CRUCIATA, financé par l’UE, s’intéressera au phénomène des croisades au Moyen Âge en étudiant les utilisations et les significations du terme «croisade» dans les sources européennes de la fin du 13e et du début du 14e siècle. Le projet propose d’aborder un vieux débat avec une approche totalement nouvelle qui tire parti des théories linguistiques pragmatiques récentes et de l’étude des utilisations du terme dans leur contexte.

Objectif

"The program aims at a global understanding of the crusading phenomenon in the Middle Age by a study of the uses and meanings of the word ""crusade"" in European sources in the end of the 13th and 14th century. Based on recent pragmatic linguistic theories, it proposes a completely new approach of an old debate on the definition of the crusade by understanding the uses of the word in their context. Though quite uncommon in medieval texts, the word “crusade” is particularly polysemous: it isn’t used to precisely indicate an event but to create linguistic categories, bringing together various realities in order to give sense and unity to the growing diversity of crusading activities.
The research will focus on previously identified documents using the word “crusade”, mainly various English and French chronicles. A close study of these texts, their authors, addressees, intentions and uses of the word “crusade” will provide new insights on how crusading was conceptualized and how diffused and accepted this conceptualization was. At the same time, working in the Centre of Medieval Studies in Stockholm and organizing conferences with other crusading scholars will allow confronting the hypothesis with other sources and views and thus making the conclusions more relevant.
Various papers will be delivered, orally or written, for specialized or large audiences. The innovative methodology of the program will be widely diffused as well as the new conceptualization of the crusading phenomenon. Apart from its interest to crusading scholars and historians, these conclusions will bring answers to current questionings about the crusades and their relation to nowadays East-West relations by showing how much the conceptualization of the crusade –what is a crusade and what is not- has never been more than a linguistic choice, very often linked to political views.
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