The Troubadours: An Introduction

by Edited by Simon Gaunt , Sarah Kay

• ISBN13: 9780521573887
• ISBN10: 0521573882
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The dazzling culture of the troubadours - the virtuosity of their songs, the subtlety of their exploration of love, and the glamorous international careers some troubadours enjoyed - fascinated contemporaries and had a lasting influence on European life and literature. Apart from the refined love songs for which the troubadours are renowned, the tradition includes political and satirical poetry, devotional lyrics and bawdy or zany poems. It is also in the troubadour song-books that the only substantial collection of medieval lyrics by women is preserved. This book offers a general introduction to the troubadours. Its sixteen newly-commissioned essays, written by leading scholars from Britain, the US, France, Italy and Spain, trace the historical development and setting of troubadour song, engage with the main trends in troubadour criticism, and examine the reception of troubadour poetry. Appendices offer an invaluable guide to the troubadours, to technical vocabulary, to research tools and to surviving manuscripts.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii	(4)
Preface	xi	(2)
Map of Occitania and neighbouring Catalonia	xiii
Introduction	1	(7)
Simon Gaunt
Sarah Kay
1 Courtly culture in medieval Occitania	8	(20)
Ruth Harvey
2 Fin'amor and the development of the courtly canso	28	(19)
Linda Paterson
3 Moral and satirical poetry	47	(19)
Catherine Leglu
4 The early troubadours: Guilhem IX to Bernart de Ventadorn	66	(17)
Stephen G. Nichols
5 The classical period: from Raimbaut d'Aurenga to Arnaut Daniel	83	(16)
Gerard Gouiran
6 The later troubadours	99	(14)
Michael Routledge
7 The trobairitz	113	(14)
Tilde Sankovitch
8 Italian and Catalan troubadours	127	(14)
Miriam Cabre
9 Music and versification	141	(23)
Margaret Switten
10 Rhetoric and hermeneutics	164	(17)
Sarah Spence
11 Intertextuality and dialogism in the troubadours	181	(16)
Maria Luisa Meneghetti
12 The troubadours at play: irony, parody and burlesque	197	(15)
Don A. Monson
13 Desire and subjectivity	212	(16)
Sarah Kay
14 Orality and writing: the text of the troubadour poem	228	(18)
Simon Gaunt
15 The chansonniers as books	246	(17)
William Burgwinkle
16 Troubadour lyric and Old French narrative	263	(16)
Sylvia Huot
Appendix 1 Major troubadours	279	(13)
Simon Gaunt
Sarah Kay
Appendix 2 Occitan terms	292	(3)
Appendix 3 Research tools and reference works	295	(8)
Catherine Leglu
Appendix 4 The chansonniers	303	(3)
Bibliography	306	(19)
Index	325