Demis Defors: the Narrative Structure and Cultural Implications of the Contemplation of Death in Medieval French Courtly Literature Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University. Lisa Shugert Bevevino, BA, MA Graduate Program in French and Italian The Ohio State University 2012 Dissertation Committee: Professor Sarah-Grace Heller Professor Jennifer Willging Professor Christopher A. Jones Copyright by Lisa Shugert Bevevino 2012 Abstract This dissertation traces the literary and cultural implications of the representation of suicide and despair in courtly literature from medieval France. The study begins with an introduction to the scholarly work already done on literary texts and is followed by a historical introduction to the problem of suicide and despair in medieval society. Scenes of suicide and despair fall into five main categories: the martyr trope, the desire for union outside the constraints of mortal life, the erotic, the way to truly express the value of life, and the apprehension of death, and they function together to show pieces of the individual personality of each character as well as to highlight societal and cultural problems that would lead a character to despair. Despair and suicide were both grave sins according to the Church in the Middle Ages, yet authors make no obvious commentary or explicit judgment against their despairing or suicidal characters. They do judge them for other sins and transgressions, so this dissertation seeks to examine how the authors do view their characters and what that implies about societal reactions to their problems. Texts from Augustine of Hippo and the Fourth Lateran Council provide the religious implications of suicide and despair, and the use of historical studies also inform the societal practices. The texts studied are: The Golden Legend in its Latin, French, and Old Occitan versions; Le Roman d’Eneas; Le Roman de Troie; Partonopeus de Blois; ii Chrétien de Troyes’s Le Chevalier au Lion, ou Yvain; and Crescas du Caylar’s Le Roman de la Reine Ester. The saints and martyrs from early Christianity provide a significant amount of literary inspiration in the Middle Ages, and their tradition sets the stage for characters to express a wish for an end to earthly existence in a religiously acceptable way. The romans antiques, inspired by Classical war epics, provide another tradition of facing voluntary death or even wishing for death as part of the heroic tradition. This then enters into the conscience of characters in vernacular, secular texts from both Christian and Jewish authors. I argue that although the Church cares about the state of one’s soul especially in the face of death and despair, authors create many situations in which such activity is acceptable. Gender, war, love, and other values may trump the laws of the Church within a literary text, but great attention and many lines are dedicated to the problems of the soul, showing that human suffering is as important in a religious context as it is in daily life. Within the narrative structure of courtly literature, no condemnation comes down against two of the gravest sins. iii To all those whose souls are not lost. iv Acknowledgments I would first like to thank Professor Sarah-Grace Heller, my advisor, for introducing me to the beautiful languages of Old French and Old Occitan during my first year of graduate school. I am deeply grateful for her readings and patience as I wrote my dissertation. I thank Professors Jennifer Willging and Drew Jones for stepping in as committee members and having endless insights and guidance to offer. I thank the French Department for providing me with an amazing year abroad, interesting courses, and excellent students throughout my stay at Ohio State. I thank Professor Daniel Hobbins for giving me feedback on the Saints chapter as well as providing support and advice. I thank Professors Anthony Kaldellis and Carolina Lopez-Ruiz for providing guidance and listening ears whenever necessary, and most importantly, housing with fully stocked libraries during research summers. I thank all the professors and fellow students at conferences at Kalamazoo, Ohio State, and Cambridge who commented on my papers and helped me develop arguments and analyses. I especially thank Cyrana Gallay for her excellent and thorough readings. I thank my family for holding the expectations bar high, which is perhaps the single most important piece in completing a graduate degree. v I thank Aaron specifically for making tea, dinner, and time to listen to me talk through arguments and chapters. I could not have done this without his reading, feedback, and most importantly, his love. vi VITA 2006 ……………………………….B.A., French and English, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2008 ……………………………….M.A., French, The Ohio State University 2006-2011……………………..…..Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 2011-2012…………………………Lecturer of English, University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France 2012……………………………….Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French Specialization: Graduate Certificate in Medieval and Renaissance Studies vii Table of Contents Abstract...........................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................v VITA.................................................................................................................................vii Table of Contents .........................................................................................................viii List of Illustrations .........................................................................................................ix Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................1 Chapter 2: Background, Historical Context, and Methods..............................................11 Chapter 3: Shame and Honor among Martyrs in The Golden Legend.............................42 Chapter 4: The Romans Antiques as Predecessors to the Rradition of Despair in Old French Romance................................................................................................74 Chapter 5: A Helpless Hero, a Leading Lady, and a Lion: Gender in Medieval French and Occitan Romances ........................................................................................... 106 Chapter 6: Vashti, A Pagan Queen Turns Saint............................................................ 132 Chapter 7: Conclusion................................................................................................. 143 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 150 viii List of Illustrations Figure 1: Transi of Jean de la Grange. .............................................................................7 ix Chapter 1: Introduction Medieval literature treated the problem of suicide with silence, and thus representations of contemplation of death in literature from the Middle Ages invite many questions and considerations on the part of the reader.1 Characters desiring death appear in both the Jewish and Christian Bibles, classical works, Lives of the saints, vernacular romances, nouvelles, and song. Some famous examples include Jonah in the Jewish testament, who was angered by his tribulations and wanted to die, and in the Christian testament, Judas Iscariot who hanged himself after betraying Jesus.2 Lucretia in sixth- century BC Rome, according to the historian Livy, killed herself after being raped by one of her husband’s companions; she could not bear the idea of living with such dishonor 1 Characters who always have an eye towards death or the life beyond in a variety of genres form part of the narrative motor of medieval literature, and modern scholars of medieval literature Simon Gaunt, Evelyn Birge Vitz, and Sarah Kay have linked death and desire with love, subjectivity, and saintliness, in their interpretation of medieval literature. The literary theory and psychological work of the twentieth-century thinkers Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Georges Bataille and Sigmund Freud necessarily play a part in the reading of these texts because of their prolific writing and cultural influence on the interpretation of and movement towards death, providing religious, psychological, and philosophical interpretations on the death wish. They address differing interpretations of what it means to desire death, how that functions in terms of a relationship to a deity, the possibility or impossibility of imagining death. Simon Gaunt, Love and Death in Medieval French and Occitan Courtly Literature: Martyrs to Love (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006); Evelyn Birge Vitz, Medieval Narrative and Modern Narratology: Subjects and Objects of Desire (New York: New York University Press, 1989); Sarah Kay, Courtly Contradictions: The Emergence of the Literary Object in the Twelfth Century (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001). 2 Jonah 4:3, New Revised Standard Version: “Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live,” Jonah says when he is angry that God will have compassion even on his enemies. At Matthew 27:5, Judas feels remorse for betraying Jesus for some