Language, War, and Lyric Form in Francophone Europe, 1337-1400
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 Politics in Translation: Language, War, and Lyric Form in Francophone Europe, 1337-1400 Yelizaveta Strakhov University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Medieval Studies Commons Recommended Citation Strakhov, Yelizaveta, "Politics in Translation: Language, War, and Lyric Form in Francophone Europe, 1337-1400" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1461. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1461 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1461 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Politics in Translation: Language, War, and Lyric Form in Francophone Europe, 1337-1400 Abstract This dissertation investigates the fraught relationship between England and French-speaking Continental Europe in the late fourteenth century by uncovering a contemporary cross-regional discourse that theorized this relationship. The dissertation examines the so-called formes fixes, an important lyric genre widely used across Francophone Europe in the late Middle Ages. It argues for this genre's emergence as a privileged medium for Francophone poets to explore the difficulty ofetaining r trans-European cultural affinity during the rise of otpr onationalist and regionalist faction in the Hundred Years War. This was a long-term conflict ostensibly between England and rF ance, lasting from 1337 until 1453, that involved multiple other European regions within its theater. The dissertation organizes itself around a large, but little studied, late medieval manuscript anthology of formes fixes lyric, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, MS Codex 902 (formerly French 15). Never fully edited, the Pennsylvania manuscript is the largest, oldest, and most formally and geographically diverse formes fixes collection extant today. Chapter One argues that, unlike other, later, formes fixes anthologies, the Pennsylvania manuscript is not structured by author or sub-genre, but rather by form, chronology, geographic diversity, and dialectal difference. It thus reveals not only its compiler's awareness of the diffusion of formes fixes lyric, but a desire to memorialize this genre's transmission across regional divides. Chapter Two explores the political effects of the diffusion of formes fixes lyric by mapping literary borrowings between a corpus of anti-war texts in this anthology and other lyric corpora written in France, England, and the Low Countries. Chapter Three focuses on Francophone responses, both positive and negative, to the transmission of formes fixes lyric into England, centering on the implications of Eustache Deschamps' praise of his English Francophone contemporary, Geoffrey Chaucer, as a "great translator" of formes fixes lyric. Chapter Four examines the adoption of formes fixes lyric in the work of Chaucer and his English Francophone contemporary, John Gower. It demonstrates that, like their Continental counterparts, Chaucer and Gower also view the appropriation of formes fixes lyric as a means of carving a geopolitically specific identity out of Francophone cultural belonging. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Comparative Literature and Literary Theory First Advisor Rita Copeland Second Advisor David Wallace Keywords English, French, Hundred Years War, lyric Subject Categories Medieval Studies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1461 POLITICS IN TRANSLATION: LANGUAGE, WAR, AND LYRIC FORM IN FRANCOPHONE EUROPE, 1337-1400 Yelizaveta Strakhov A DISSERTATION in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Supervisor of Dissertation ____________________________ David Wallace, Judith Rodin Professor of English Co-Supervisor of Dissertation _____________________________ Rita Copeland, Sheli Z. and Burton X. Rosenberg Professor of Humanities Graduate Group Chairperson ____________________________ Kevin M. F. Platt, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities Dissertation Committee Kevin Brownlee, Professor of Romance Languages Emily Steiner, Associate Professor of English POLITICS IN TRANSLATION: LANGUAGE, WAR, AND LYRIC FORM IN FRANCOPHONE EUROPE, 1337-1400 COPYRIGHT 2014 Yelizaveta Strakhov iii To my father, who too writes beautiful short-form poetry. iv Acknowledgments This project could not have been completed without the aid of multiple people, for which I will eternally be grateful. Generous institutional support for this project has been provided by a Penfield Dissertation Research Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania, a Schallek Award from the Medieval Academy of America and the Richard III Society, a Dissertation Completion Grant from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the American Association for University Women. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the indefatigable help and enthusiasm of John Pollock, Amey Hutchins, Lynn Ransom, and Daniel Traister of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania, who were ever willing to answer my myriad manuscript-related questions, as well as to JoAnne Dubil of Comparative Literature, whose tireless energy never ceases to amaze me. I am further deeply grateful to the vibrant and warm scholarly communities of the Medievalists@Penn, the Med-Ren Seminar, the History of Material Texts Seminar and the Penn Humanities Forum Graduate Seminar (2013-14) at the University of Pennsylvania; the Machaut in the Book project, organized by Deborah McGrady and Benjamin Albritton, and the Medieval Song Lab, organized by Ardis Butterfield and Anna Zayaruznaya at Yale. I owe the shape of much of this project to the stimulating discussions offered in these productive spaces. We do our best work in conversation, and my graduate school years have been gloriously rich with guides, mentors, and interlocutors who have helped me build this v project up. I would like particularly to acknowledge Julia Boffey, Tony Edwards, and Ardis Butterfield for lending a helpful ear and eye to earlier versions of ideas that have benefited greatly from their thoughtful feedback. I have further gained so much from the exciting work and endless good cheer of my fellow scholars and dear friends Carissa Harris, Ryan Perry, Joe Stadolnik, Steve Rozenski, Leah Schwebel, and Andrew Kraebel. I would further be remiss if I did not single out my amazing Penn coterie, who are some of the brightest, kindest, and most generous people I know: Sunny Yang, Kristi Tillett, Marina Bilbija, Tekla Bude, Marie Turner, Jackie Burek, Sierra Lomuto, Daniel Davies, Lucas Wood, and Sarah Townsend, with special thanks to Megan Cook, Kara Gaston, Courtney Rydel, and CJ Jones for years of enriching mentorship. The fullest debt is owed, of course, to the “Dream Team,” by which I mean a dissertation committee characterized not only by humbling brilliance, but a generosity, kindness, enthusiasm, and goodwill that renders these four scholars truly special. To Rita Copeland, David Wallace, Kevin Brownlee, and Emily Steiner: I am, undoubtedly, a better scholar, better pedagogue and better person for having worked with you. Thank you for reading through hundreds of pages, patiently listening to my malformed ideas, and ever championing a project that often resisted easy disciplinary categorization. I owe so much to my life-long friends who have been my rock over the years: Mark Nemtsov, Abby Johnson, Ivana Katic, Nhung Pham, Christopher Hanley, and Alexandra Fallows. And, of course, though they will roll their eyes as they read this (while secretly being very pleased), I must, at last, thank my brilliant and phenomenal parents for ever reminding me to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. vi ABSTRACT POLITICS IN TRANSLATION: LANGUAGE, WAR, AND LYRIC FORM IN FRANCOPHONE EUROPE, 1337-1400 Yelizaveta Strakhov David Wallace Rita Copeland This dissertation investigates the fraught relationship between England and French- speaking Continental Europe in the late fourteenth century by uncovering a contemporary cross-regional discourse that theorized this relationship. The dissertation examines the so- called formes fixes, an important lyric genre widely used across Francophone Europe in the late Middle Ages. It argues for this genre’s emergence as a privileged medium for Francophone poets to explore the difficulty of retaining trans-European cultural affinity during the rise of protonationalist and regionalist faction in the Hundred Years War. This was a long-term conflict ostensibly between England and France, lasting from 1337 until 1453, that involved multiple other European regions within its theater. The dissertation organizes itself around a large, but little studied, late medieval manuscript anthology of formes fixes lyric, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, MS Codex 902 (formerly French 15). Never fully edited, the Pennsylvania manuscript is the largest, oldest, and most formally and geographically diverse formes fixes collection extant today. Chapter One argues that, unlike other, later, formes fixes anthologies, the Pennsylvania manuscript is not structured by author or sub-genre, but rather by form, chronology, vii geographic