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French Arthurian Literature
- Edited by Norris J. Lacy, Pennsylvania State University
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- Book:
- A History of Arthurian Scholarship
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 18 March 2023
- Print publication:
- 16 February 2006, pp 95-121
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- Chapter
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Summary
The privileged position of Old French Arthurian romance at the beginning of the history of the genre means that knowledge of it and the scholarship devoted to it is often a necessary preliminary to the study of, say, Middle High German or Middle English romance. Moreover, general studies of medieval Arthurian romance, its themes and characters, usually begin with consideration of French. Consequently, a number of the scholars discussed in this chapter are also important for the history of scholarship on romance in languages other than French. We are thinking here particularly of the early mythologists and folklorists, such as Jessie Weston, and the authors or editors of such summae as J.D. Bruce and R.S. Loomis. There will therefore be some unavoidable overlap with other chapters in the present volume. Our approach here is largely chronological in that certain topics and approaches tend to dominate scholarship on Old French Arthurian romance over a decade or decades. Although we have been able to discern a basic movement from editing through source study to interest in the literary qualities of the text, reception history and application of various theories, the chronology is not absolute, as there are examples of all but the most recent types of theory-driven scholarship scattered across the twentieth century as a whole. We concentrate here on two main groups of texts: firstly, the romances of Chrétien de Troyes and the verse tradition of Chrétien epigones, and secondly the great prose romances, cyclical and non-cyclical. We treat the Tristan romances to a lesser degree and have left out of consideration the Lais of Marie de France, since, with the exception of Lanval and possibly Chievrefoil, they cannot be considered Arthurian.
Since the modern study of medieval literature is mainly based on printed editions, this chapter will begin with an overview of achievements and the methods of editing Old French Arthurian romance from roughly the middle of the nineteenth century, essentially the beginning of the institutionalization of scholarship in the area. Although knowledge of these texts between the end of the Middle Ages and our chosen point of departure is a fascinating chapter in the history of medieval studies, we pass over it in silence for the large part.
8 - La Reine-Fée in the Roman de Perceforest: Rewriting, Rethinking
- Edited by Bonnie Wheeler
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- Book:
- Arthurian Studies in Honour of P.J.C. Field
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 05 February 2013
- Print publication:
- 30 June 2004, pp 81-92
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Summary
The role of the key character, the Reine Fée, in the Roman de Perceforest is an amalgam of the roles attributed to Merlin and to such marginal, ambivalent characters as Morgue la Fée in the Arthurian Vulgate Cycle and its avatars. The romancier minimizes what might seem disturbing in her by capitalizing on her femaleness and by focusing on her as progenitor of what the romance imagines as the later Arthurian kingdom.
The Roman de Perceforest is a veritable gallimaufry of characters: enchanters, dwarves, monsters, loathly damsels and naughty children dog the footsteps of the heroes and, by their positively Dickensian variety, prevent the romance from foundering into commonplace. I concentrate on one of the most unusual of these characters: the Reine Fée. I begin by explaining who she is, and I shall then examine some intertextualities which govern her conception, not in order to explain her away merely as a recycling of previously used motifs, but rather to return to Kristevan intertextuality which supposes an engagement with, a dual-focused reading of, the later and deriving text. I argue that the Reine Fée of the Perceforest is an absorption and transformation of certain figures culled from those most authoritative models, the Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian romances, and the Prose Tristan: Merlin particularly, but also, in certain of their manifestations, that curious constellation of women who operate on the dubious, ill-reputed margins of the Arthurian world like Morgue la Fée, the Dame du Lac, Sebille, Niniane. …