HUMANITIES
trobairitz IN
115 Susanna Niiranen STUDIES
«Miroir de mérite» médiévaux des de la femme dans les textes Valeurs sociales, rôles et image JYVÄSKYLÄ
SUSANNA NIIRANEN «MIROIR DE MÉRITE» trobairitz Jyväskylä 2009 Susanna Niiranen «Miroir de mérite» médiévaux des THE UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ RESEARCH SERIES PUBLISHED BY JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 115 Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Jyväskyläensis 1938-1961 Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research 1962- Studia Historica Jyväskyläensia 1962-2003 Studia Philologica Jyväskyläensia 1966-2002 Jyväskylä Studies in the Arts 1967-2003 Studies in Sport, Physical Education and Health 1971- Biological Research Reports from the University of Jyväskylä 1975-1999 Jyväskylä Studies in Computer Science, Economics and Statistics 1980-2000 Jyväskylä Studies in Communication 1995-2003 Jyväskylä Studies in Biological and Environmental Science 1999- Jyväskylä Studies in Computing 1999- Jyväskylä Studies in Business and Economics 2000- Jyväskylä Studies in Statistics 2000- Jyväskylä Studies in Languages 2002-2003 Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 2003- Valeurs sociales, rôles et image de la femme dans les textes ISSN 1459-4323 ISBN 978-951-39-3497-2 JAKAJA: Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto, PL 35, 40014 JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO DISTRIBUTOR: University Library of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ FINLAND JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 115
Susanna Niiranen
«Miroir de mérite» Valeurs sociales, rôles et image de la femme dans les textes médiévaux des trobairitz
Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Villa Ranan Blomstedtin salissa maaliskuun 21. päivänä 2009 kello 12.
Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Jyväskylä, in the Building Villa Rana. Blomstedt Hall, on March 21, 2009 at 12 o'clock noon.
UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ
JYVÄSKYLÄ 2009 «Miroir de mérite» Valeurs sociales, rôles et image de la femme dans les textes médiévaux des trobairitz JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN HUMANITIES 115
Susanna Niiranen
«Miroir de mérite» Valeurs sociales, rôles et image de la femme dans les textes médiévaux des trobairitz
UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ
JYVÄSKYLÄ 2009 Editors Seppo Zetterberg Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä Pekka Olsbo, Marja-Leena Tynkkynen Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities Editorial Board
Editor in Chief Heikki Hanka, Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä Petri Karonen, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä Matti Rahkonen, Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä Petri Toiviainen, Department of Music, University of Jyväskylä Minna-Riitta Luukka, Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Jyväskylä Raimo Salokangas, Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä
Cover picture: Castelloza and an anonymous chevalier, ms. A fol. 168v, Vatican Library, lat. 5232.
URN:ISBN:978-951-39-3509-2 ISBN 978-951-39-3509-2 (PDF)
ISBN 978-951-39-3497-2 (nid.) ISSN 1459-4331
Copyright ©2009 , by University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2009
ABSTRACT
Niiranen, Susanna « Miroir de mérite ». Valeurs sociales, rôles et image de la femme dans les textes médiévaux des trobairitz. / “Mirror of merit”. Social values, roles and image of woman in the medieval texts of the trobairitz Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2009, 267 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4331; 115) ISBN 978-951-39-3509-2 (PDF), 978-951-39-3497-2 (nid.) Finnish summary Diss. The trobairitz were Occitan women troubadours, active from around 1170 to ap proximately 1260. The trobairitz repertory provides unique material on about from the High Middle Ages allowing the study of women’s conceptions, values and ways of thinking can be studied. In this study, these characteristics are compared with the socio poetic code of male troubadours and with the other contemporary Occitan literature. In their poetry, the trobairitz manifest values like sincerity, trust, merit, honour, and good reputation. These qualities can be considered as representa tions of feudal and courtly culture and related to the contemporary discussion of being noble in blood or noble in heart which derives from the development and the enclosure of aristocracy. The same values are articulated in the vidas (biographies) and razos (commentaries) that introduce trobairitz in a number of manuscripts. In addition, the very favourable attitude towards educational or intellectual values is associated with poetic skills and with the needs of court social life. All these values articulate trobairitz’ social roles as aristocratic ladies, domnas, as sources of poetic inspiration and patronesses of the male trouba dours but also as poetic “high style” song makers who were distinguished from the lower class and lower style female musicians. The significance of reputation seems to be gendered in a way that a decent reputation might have helped women’s poetry survive. For men, on the other hand, any reputation (good or bad) was sufficient. As for the affective level of the poetry, the study shows that the trobairitz use the same emotional register (love, joy, suffering) as their male counterparts, which supports the hypothesis that the women troubadours were well inte grated into the poetic culture of Occitan troubadours. Keywords: trobairitz, troubadours, Occitania, medieval literature, courtly cul ture, values, social role, gender history