This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Dialogue and dialectic in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Occitan and old French courtly lyric and narrative Barker, Camilla Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). 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Camilla Barker PhD, French (School of Arts and Humanities) Dialogue and dialectic in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Occitan and Old French courtly lyric and narrative 1 Contents Abstract P. 3 Introduction P. 4 Chapter 1: Old French & Occitan: Intertextuality and Cultural Divides P.22 Chapter 2: Silence and Secrecy P. 91 Chapter 3: Monologue as Dialogue P. 156 Chapter 4: Women’s Desire P. 242 Conclusion P. 314 Bibliography P. 321 2 Abstract This thesis considers how dialectic, dialogue and debate contribute to the construction of the courtly subject in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Old French and Occitan lyric and narrative. It considers how debate and dialogue are informed by dialectic, which acts as a structural and thematic frame and gives courtly debate its distinctive oppositional tone. I argue that dialectic underpins debate lyrics; dialogues within narrative texts; and monologues (within lyrics and narratives) which break down into clear internal dialogue, or which use formal structures which are suggestive of dialogue. Chapter one stands as an introduction to the substantial tradition of debate both in Occitan and in Northern French. Chapter two considers a major theme in courtly literature, silence and secrecy, in the context of debate. Chapter three addresses dialogic forms within monologue, whether in single-voiced lyric poems or in monologues delivered by characters in narrative texts. Chapter four examines women’s desire, within the framework of dialogue, asking how dialogue shapes and constructs the feminine voice. Each chapter considers a range of courtly lyrics that are not in dialogue form, but which use the formal properties of dialogue, in addition to contemporary verse narratives. Research questions include what dialogue can tell us about the construction of the speaking voice in courtly literature; how dialogue constructs the feminine voice; and how dialogue inscribes cultural difference. 3 Introduction This thesis explores the way dialectic, dialogue and debate inform and construct the poetic persona in Old French and Occitan courtly love lyric and narratives. My focus is the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which saw an explosion of courtly literature in these languages. I will consider how debate works in the context of dialectic, which acts as a structural and thematic frame and gives courtly debate its distinctive oppositional form and content. I will show how dialectic structures debate lyrics; dialogues within narrative texts; and monologues (within lyrics and narratives) which evolve into clear internal dialogue, or which use formal structures which are suggestive of dialogue. There are around 160 debate lyrics in Occitan (known as tensos) and 170 in Old French (known as jeux-partis) respectively.1 These two corpuses allow me to consider how the linguistic traditions overlap and develop in opposition to each other, thematically and structurally. While the lyric corpus is central to this thesis, I also consider debate within narrative texts, ranging from Chrétien de Troyes’ Old French Arthurian romances (which date from the mid to late twelfth century) to the Occitan romance Flamenca (which dates from the late thirteenth century). This allows me to compare the use of dialogue within the lyrics with that seen in plot- 1 Gally defines the jeu-parti as ‘une énonciation: un débat unique situé dans un moment précis avec des partenaires connus…il est la représentation directe ou différée d’un dialogue en vers entre deux partenaires qui s’interpellent par leurs noms avant de nommer à leur tour dans deux envois des juges chargés de dire le droit d’amour’ in ‘Jehan Bretel, poète et mécène’, pp. 127-28. Harvey and Paterson follow the Leys d’Amor’s terms, defining a tenso as ‘an altercation or debate in which each [interlocutor] maintains and pleads in favour of some proposition or action’, and a partimen as ‘an issue which has two opposite sides, which is given to another person who is to choose and defend the side he wishes to opt for’. The Troubadour Tensos and Partimens, p. xix. 4 driven narratives. Finally, I include debate, whether overt or suggested, within single-voiced lyrics and in monologues within narratives. My approach to dialogue encompasses both structure and content, with two chapters focusing on the former and two on the latter. Chapter One considers debate between two linguistic and cultural traditions and the impact of dialogue structure on the presentation of these traditions. Chapter Two examines the theme of silence and secrecy, which is at the centre of all courtly literature but which takes on a particular pertinence when more than one poetic voice or character is implicated in a debate. Chapter Three considers dialogue within the frame of the monologue, and encompasses both internal and suggested dialogue; finally, Chapter Four looks at feminine voices, asking how dialogue contributes to the construction of gender. Before setting out the corpus and my research questions in more detail, it may be helpful to sketch the social and educational context in which courtly literature flourished in what we now call northern and southern France. This will be followed by an analysis of dialectic – how it is defined, and how it can be used as a framework for questions of debate within courtly literature. While urban centres were beginning to emerge in Occitania by the twelfth century, the social setting for the composition of troubadour lyric was predominantly aristocratic court centres; aristocrats were both composers and patrons.2 The 2 Paterson describes the principal courts in Occitania, stating that ‘Early troubadours such as Cercamon and Marcabru remained attached to the court of Guilhem X of Aquitaine until his death…The late twelfth century, however, seems to have been a good time for itinerant 5 troubadours, from what little we know, were drawn from aristocratic and non- aristocratic backgrounds; their songs often highlight feudal relationships, which probably reflects the social structure in which they were composed. Non- aristocratic troubadours were educated men dependent on patronage; Meneghetti has argued that, up until about the mid-twelfth century, the circulation of troubadour lyrics was limited to a handful of Occitanian courts, suggesting a specific social backdrop for Occitan lyric production at this time.3 The importance of patronage is also seen in northern France – Chrétien de Troyes, for example, dedicated his Lancelot to his patron Marie de Champagne.4 The association of some Old French writers with aristocratic court centres is reflected in their texts’ awareness of feudal and chivalric systems. It is likely that courtly literature began in Occitania and moved northwards; trade routes and the movement of the Occitanian aristocracy in the person of Eleanor of Aquitaine (who married Henry II of England in 1154) goes some way toward explaining this geographical shift. The northern trading town of Arras enjoyed a thriving literary tradition in the early Middle Ages: jeux-partis were central to this tradition. This was an urban environment different from the feudal court centres of Occitania. As Butterfield sets out, Arras was split into two – la Cité and la Ville.