The heritage of the troubadours
Active in the Middle Ages, between 1000 and 1350, troubadours were Occitan poets who developed the art of courtly song. Composers, poets and musicians, they performed or had their works performed by jugglers and minstrels. Written in a common langue d'oc - referred to as "Provençal" or "langue romane" - they had two main themes: love and current affairs/debate. The first category was the most prestigious, as it was directly linked to "fin'amor" (courtly love). Current affairs were mostly dealt with in "sirventès", short protest songs. After reaching its apogee in the 13th century, this art form began to disappear in the 14th century with the advent of censorship due to religious mores. This decline was also encouraged by the Crusades, which undermined the social stability that had hitherto been conducive to creativity. While few traces remain of texts from the 10th and 11th centuries, works from the Golden Age of the Troubadours (12thand 13th centuries) have been preserved. In all, 400 troubadours have come down to us. Among the best-known are Azalaïs de Porcairagues and Matfre Ermengau.
The Occitan language
Occitan-language literature has survived to the present day, permeating local culture. In Hérault, some people still speak Occitan, or langue d'oc. Long referred to as a patois in the face of official French, this language is also descended from Latin and its mixing with local languages after the arrival of the Romans. In the Middle Ages, langue d'oc asserted itself as the language of courtly love, refined mores and culture. The troubadours sang it from northern Italy to the Pyrenees, before it became the language of the Cathar heresy, fought as fiercely as those who spoke it. Preserved only for domestic use, it revived in the 19th and 20th centuries in a movement parallel to that of the Félibrige in Provence. Sung by great writers such as Ferdinand Fabre in the 19thcentury , then Paul Valéry, Joseph Delteil, André Chansom, Jean-Pierre Chabrol and Max Rouquette, it is once again studied and spoken in certain schools (the Calandretas), and today has its own fervent defenders who are working to ensure that it does not fall into oblivion.
Francophone literature
The region's authors have greatly contributed to the influence of French literature. The majority of them chose the French language as early as the 17th century. In 1639, four years after the creation of the Académie française, Jacques Esprit from Béziers entered the institution, followed by another native of Béziers, Paul Pellisson, historiographer to Louis XIV, in 1653. In the twentieth century, an attraction to new modes of expression emerged, notably in the case of Sétois Paul Valéry. A great writer, poet and philosopher, the success of Cimetière marin turned him definitively towards poetry and the arts. Elected to the Académie française in 1925, then appointed professor at the Collège de France, he remained loyal to his native town, which he himself renamed "Île singulière". Yves Rouquette and Maurice Clavel are two other sons of the soil who shone as writers, not forgetting another worthy representative of poetry, king of the word and the verb: Georges Brassens - composer, singer and musician - also born in Sète.
Literary events
In every corner of the département, you'll find literary cafés, book fairs and bookshops, writing workshops... Throughout the year, numerous festivals keep readers busy. These include Voix vives en Méditerranée and Automnhalles in Sète, La comédie du livre in Montpellier, Le Festival international du roman noir in Frontignan, and Le festival de la BD in Sérignan.
