"FLIPPING THE SCRIPT": FEMININE CULPABILITY MODELS IN FIFTEENTH- CENTURY IBERIAN TEXTS ________________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board ________________________________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ________________________________________________________________________ by Erica F. O'Brien August 2019 Examining Committee Members: Dr. Montserrat Piera, Advisory Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Dr. Hiram Aldarondo, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Dr. Víctor Pueyo Zoco, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Dr. Adriano Duque, External Member, Villanova University © Copyright 2019 by __ Erica F. O'Brien__ All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the ways in which feminine culpability is verbally articulated by the male courtly lover to his beloved lady within the amorous relationship in three fifteenth-century Spanish sentimental novels: Diego de San Pedro’s Cárcel de amor, published in 1492, and two of Juan de Flores' sentimental novels, Grimalte y Gradissa and Grisel and Mirabella, both published in approximately 1495, and how these motifs of feminine culpability are subverted in the anonymous fifteenth-century Catalan chivalric novel Curial e Güelfa. This subversion of culpability motifs is facilitated in Curial e Güelfa since there is also a subversion of gender roles within the amorous relationship of the novel's protagonists: a female lover, Güelfa, who courts her male beloved, Curial. To execute this study, I begin by discussing the origins of this rhetoric of feminine culpability in patristic, Biblical and philosophical texts, illustrating their sedimentation into the collective ideologies of medieval audiences. I also examine these feminine culpability models in Provençal lyric poetry written and recited by Occitan troubadours between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, as one of its particular genres, the mala cansó, aims to not only blame the beloved lady, but also to publicly defame her, a threat that is also ever-present in the words of the male lover in the sentimental novel. After analyzing the tactics used by the male courtly lover to blame the beloved lady for his suffering and the demise of the relationship, I demonstrate how these same tactics are employed by the female characters of Curial e Güelfa toward the beloved man. However, feminine blame still occurs in Curial e Güelfa, manifested as feminine self-blame and blame between women, while the male characters engage in self-absolution, absolution of other men, and utter shirking of the blame. The theoretical framework employed is that of medieval canon law, and the way in which culpability was determined under this law from iii the twelfth century onward, which was by the intentions of the offender at the time of the crime or transgression rather than the consequences of the transgression. If we examine these fifteenth-century courtly love texts, it becomes clear that the beloved lady is innocent, while the male lover himself is the culpable party. Finally, following Rouben C. Cholakian's reading of the troubadour poetry through the work of twentieth-century psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, I conclude that although the poet-lover verbally enunciates erotic metaphors and adulating language toward his beloved lady in the guise of courtly love, the true desire that he cannot articulate is to dominate, to overpower, and possibly to eradicate the feminine. Thus, in a Lacanian sense the notion that courtly love literature praises the woman is a fallacy. Both the poet-lover of the Provençal lyric and the courtly lover of the sentimental novel subvert the concept of alleged feminine superiority and exaltation in these texts. iv Dedicated to the teachers who encouraged and believed in me throughout my academic career. All of you are inspiring women who helped me to foster a positive sense of identity and belief in myself along the way: Donna Cratin, Marisa Rauscher, María Amalia Schweizer, and of course, Montserrat Piera, who has guided me through this dissertation process with patience and molta tolerància. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the many people who impacted my academic career in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at Temple University. First, Dr. Pilar Maraví, my very first professor of Spanish all the way back in 2003, who out of the goodness of her heart stayed after class to explain the lyrics to my favorite Shakira song to me even though she was earning a PhD of her own. To María Amalia Schweizer, a professor who not only valued my work and encouraged me to return to pursue my MA, PhD, and to teach, but who made me feel understood and empowered in every interaction I had with her. To Dr. Montserrat Piera, who since my first course with her in 2007 has made me feel like a capable writer and researcher, and as my dissertation advisor has given so much of her time and energy in helping me to write, revise, and stay motivated, and has encouraged me in times of absolute panic. I would like to thank the other members of my defense committee, Dr. Víctor Pueyo Zoco, who has taught some of my favorite courses here at Temple, making intriguing connections between Medieval and Golden Age literature and contemporary pop culture. Dr. Hiram Aldarondo, whose kind words at my defense will stay with me long after, and whose feedback and bibliography suggestions have always made me feel even more enthused and validated about my research on the treatment of female characters in Peninsular and Latin American literature. Dr. Adriano Duque, who not only served on my committee out of the kindness of his heart, but also whose feedback at my doctoral defense was extremely validating, with suggestions that motivate me to expand this dissertation into further research studies. I would not have been able to complete this work without the constant support of my vi husband, Vincent Gerbino, and the love of our amazing son Leo, whose energy and spirit have uplifted me during this process. “Mommy, books,” was a phrase that he began saying as our house became more and more full of the books that would serve as my bibliography. I would like to thank my parents, Kay and Frank O’Brien, who helped me through graduate school by providing love, advice, and helping me in whatever way they could. To the rest of my family, Tara, Donna, Stephen, Kylie, Olivia and Samantha, with whom spending time has always been my favorite way of decompressing after a long semester. Finally, to my friends and colleagues in the department, for providing a sense of community and support even in times of stress. Thank you all for being there, for improving my Spanish, listening to my ideas and my struggles, and for making me laugh and encouraging me to keep going. Getting accepted into this program has helped me to grow in so many ways, and to achieve some of my highest aspirations. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................iii DEDICATION......................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................vi PROLOGUE.........................................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1. MALDIZEN: MISOGYNISTIC MODELS AND MALE "NAYSAYERS" IN BIBLICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS............................................................................................................................1 2. COURTEOUS JERKS AND CHIVALROUS SNOBS, AT YOUR "SERVICE": OCCITAN POETRY, THE COURTLY LOVE TRADITION, AND THE FORMATION OF THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS……………………………….....36 3. THE BEARER OF THE BLAME: FEMININE CULPABILITY MODELS IN THE NOVELA SENTIMENTAL............................................................................................73 4. FLIPPING THE SCRIPT: THE NOT-SO-DISTRESSED DAMSEL AND THE SHIRKING OF THE BLAME IN CURIAL E GÜELFA..........................................135 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................189 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................198 PROLOGUE Since the end of the twelfth century, the invective against women was a common practice in the Provençal poetic tradition. Two types of Provençal poems, the mala cansó and the mala cobla, were used by the troubadours as verbal vehicles to publicly criticize the cruel and ungrateful behavior of women to whom they devoted their love, indicating their final renunciation of the relationship, and, in some cases, joyfully boasting that they had found a new beloved lady. According to Robert Archer, the most famous of these cansós was Bernat de Ventadorn’s “Can vei la lauzeta mover” (Misoginia 43). In this poem, Ventadorn’s grievances about his beloved’s betrayal lead him to a sweeping denouncement of all women, grouping them together as one unified, malicious entity: “De las domnas me dezesper; / ja mais en lor nọ·m fiari; / c’aissi com las solh chaptener, / enaissi las deschaptenrai./ Pois vei c’una pro no m’en te / vas leis que ·m destrui e·m cofon, / totas las dopt’e las mescre, / car be sai c’atretals se son” (vv. 25-32). Matfre