Gender And Genre in Medieval French Literature

by Simon Gaunt

• ISBN13: 9780521022606
• ISBN10: 0521022606
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This wide-ranging study explores the ideological framework of genre in Old French and Occitan literature by charting the relationship between ideology and gender in five key genres: the chansons de geste, courtly romance, the Occitan canso, hagiography, and the fabliaux. Simon Gaunt offers new readings of canonical Old French and medieval Occitan texts such as the Chanson de Roland, Chr_tien de Troyes's Chevalier de la charrette, and lyrics by Bernart de Ventadorn, and in addition he considers many less well-known works and less familiar genres such as hagiography and the fabliaux. Drawing on contemporary feminist theory, he examines how masculinity, as well as femininity, is constructed in medieval French and Occitan texts, and shows that gender is a crucial element in the formation of the ideologies that underpin medieval literary genres.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
List of abbreviations	x
Introduction	1	(21)
Monologic masculinity: the chanson de geste	22	(49)
The knight meets his match: romance	71	(51)
Troubadours, ladies and language: the canso	122	(58)
Saints, sex and community: hagiography	180	(54)
Genitals, gender and mobility: the fabliaux	234	(52)
Conclusion	286	(4)
Notes	290	(46)
Bibliography	336	(29)
Index	365