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Russo Georgetown 0076D 127 LIBROS DE BUEN HUMOR: UNDERSTANDING THE COMIC IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY FRAME NARRATIVES A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Spanish By Maureen C. Russo, M.S. Washington, DC April 25, 2014 Copyright 2014 by Maureen C. Russo All Rights Reserved ii LIBROS DE BUEN HUMOR: UNDERSTANDING THE COMIC IN FOURTEENTH- CENTURY FRAME NARRATIVES Maureen C. Russo, M.S. Thesis Advisor: Dr. Emily C. Francomano, PhD. ABSTRACT This dissertation is a comparative study of the functions of humor in three fourteenth-century frame collections: the Iberian text, El Libro de buen amor, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. With the Libro de buen amor as the backbone of my investigation, I isolate several specific comic trends present across the three texts, identifying the nuances of their function and analyzing their relationship to other intersecting elements such as hermeneutics, parody, didacticism and reception. This study is the first piece of scholarship to treat all three of these canonical collections side-by-side for an in-depth examination of their humor. Humor is an essential element in each collection as well as an important commonality among them, but it is also one of the most complex themes for critical treatment. The way in which the comic functions in narrative discourse is at once central to self-expression and yet also impossible to fully theorize or describe. In order to manage the vastness of my project, I have focused my investigation on several very specific comic modes so that I may examine their roles in-depth and trace their functions across each collection. I begin by contextualizing the comparative nature of the study and the analytical approaches that it implicates. Chapter I presents an investigation of the collections’ commonalities, inscribed audience, and theoretical lenses. Next, in Chapters II, III and IV, I iii introduce the specific trends of humor that I have identified as integral to these frame collections. The comic moments that I explore in greatest depth include three specific modes of humor: a comic trend of “wit-for-guilt” substitution present in fabliau episodes from each collection; a variation on “wit-for-guilt” substitution that occurs at the level of the extradiegetic or external frame; and finally a comic mode that I call “hermeneutical humor,” in which the texts parody the very interpretive strategies that they invite. Through my investigations of humor’s complex relationship to and intersection with elements of parody, hermeneutics, didacticism, intertextuality and inscribed readership, this dissertation addresses the need for a more-nuanced understanding of the role of the comic in the frame tale tradition. By placing these fourteenth-century comic discourses in dialogue with one another for the first time, the project makes a meaningful contribution to the interdisciplinary and comparative approaches necessary to any study of the European literary tradition of the Middle Ages. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research and writing of this dissertation is dedicated to the many people who helped along the way. First and foremost, I extend my gratitude to my committee, Dr. Emily Francomano, Dr. Barbara Mujica, and Dr. Lucia Binotti, for their invaluable feedback. I am especially indebted to Dr. Barbara Mujica for her mentorship, in teaching and in scholarship; to Dr. Gwen Kirkpatrick, for her support and her faith in me throughout my graduate studies; and to Dr. Adam Lifshey, for being there to offer good advice when I most needed it. My completion of this study would also not have been possible without the encouragement of my family and friends. A big thank you goes out to all of my graduate colleagues at Georgetown, and especially to Ashley Caja, Anthony Perry, and Patricia Soler, for their solidarity at various stages of my research and writing process. I am also grateful for the support of my parents, my brother Mark, and my husband Manuel, the most patient man in the world. Most of all, however, I would like to thank my advisor and mentor, Dr. Emily Francomano, who has promoted this project from its infancy to its final stages and whose guidance has been instrumental in my development and growth as a scholar. Something that I have appreciated perhaps most of all has been her encouragement to take intellectual risks in my explorations of this thesis topic. Her mentorship and example has pushed me to pose questions that I otherwise might not have asked, to pursue investigations that I otherwise might never have attempted, and, consequently, to forge connections where I otherwise might never have done so. v TABLE OF CONTENTS GENERAL INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER I COMMONALITIES, AUDIENCE, AND LENSES OF HUMOR ............................... 10 THREE COLLECTIONS WITH MUCH IN COMMON ............................................. 14 Fourteenth-century Narratives ....................................................................................... 14 Stories About Story-telling ............................................................................................ 17 Framed Fabliaux ............................................................................................................ 18 “Tit-for-Tat”: Transactionality of Narrative .................................................................. 19 Extradiegetic Narrators Who Refuse to Stay in the Outer Frame .................................. 20 Readers and Interpretation in the Funhouse of Metalinguistic Consciousness.............. 21 IMAGINING THE HISTORICAL AUDIENCES OF THE LIBRO DE BUEN AMOR, THE DECAMERON AND THE CANTERBURY TALES .................................................. 23 LENSES OF HUMOR ................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER II. WORD FOR WORD, WIT FOR GUILT: THE COMIC POWER OF SUBSTITUTION IN “PITAS PAYAS,” “THE SHIPMAN’S TALE,” AND DECAMERON IX, 6 ............. 51 “THE TALE OF PITAS PAYAS” ................................................................................. 59 CHAUCER’S “THE SHIPMAN’S TALE” ................................................................... 66 DECAMERON IX, 6 ..................................................................................................... 71 COMPARATIVE ANALYSES AND CONCLUSIONS .............................................. 77 CHAPTER III WIT-FOR-GUILT SUBSTITUTIONS AND THE EXTRADIEGETIC NARRATORS: THE COMICAL ART OF THE SELF-FASHIONED MOCK TRIAL ................................. 87 vi AUTHOR-NARRATORS TAKE THE STAND: “MOCK TRIAL” EPISODES TO BE EXPLORED ACROSS THREE COLLECTIONS ........................................................ 90 “HUMBUG,” “MOCK TRIAL” AND “SELF-FASHIONING”................................. 102 HISTORICAL PRECEDENT FOR MOCK TRIAL HUMOR ..................................... 106 COMPARATIVE ANALYSES & CONCLUSIONS .................................................. 113 THE FICTIONAL FRAME AS CAMOUFLAGE ...................................................... 114 CAVEAT LECTOR ..................................................................................................... 120 THE ARCHPRIEST ON TRIAL: PARODIC PREACHING OR SERIOUS SERMON? ................................................ 125 MALA PALABRA OR ONESTI VOCABULI? SEEKING COVER THROUGH LANGUAGE’S INNATE AMBIGUITIES ................................................................. 129 CHAPTER III CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................. 144 CHAPTER IV FROM BEGINNING TO END, AND THE ROADS IN BETWEEN: HERMENEUTICAL HUMOR IN THE NUN’S PRIEST’S TALE AND THE LIBRO DE BUEN AMOR 145 “HORIZON(S) OF EXPECTATIONS” FOR HISTORICAL AUDIENCES ............. 150 DIGRESSIONS OF AND FROM THE READING ROAD ....................................... 158 OPENING EXEMPLA: INVITATIONS TO INTERPRET........................................ 168 INCITEMENTS TO INTERPRET: THE NUN’S PRIEST’S MORALITAS AND THE ARCHPRIEST’S PROLOGUE ................................................................................... 180 CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................... 189 WORKS CITED .......................................................................................................... 192 vii GENERAL INTRODUCTION My dissertation explores the complex relationships between humor, parody and didacticism in three fourteenth-century frame collections: the Libro de buen amor, the Decameron, and The Canturbury Tales. These texts are arguably the most famous frame tale collections of fourteenth-century European literature, yet there exist no comparative studies dedicated to treating all three of them side-by-side. By placing these three fourteenth-century comic discourses in dialogue with one another for the first time, my research makes a meaningful contribution to the interdisciplinary approaches necessary to any study of the European literary tradition in the Middle Ages. Specifically, my project advances a more nuanced understanding of humor’s complex relationship to parody, hermeneutics, didacticism, and inscribed readership, thus addressing the dearth in scholarship on the role of humor in late-medieval frame tales. The frame tale collection holds a unique place in the marriage of orality
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