Download or read book Romancing the Past written by Gabrielle M. Spiegel and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a poststructuralist study of thirteenth-century French historical texts, Gabrielle Spiegel investigates the reasons for the rise of French vernacular prose historiography at this particular time. She argues that the vernacular prose histories that have until now been regarded as royalist were actually products of the aristocracy, reflecting its anxiety as it faced social and economic change and political threats from the monarchy.