Dynamic Dichotomy

The Poetic ‘I’ in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century French Lyric Poetry
Erscheinungsjahr 1998
ISBN: 978-90-420-0365-1
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 149, 228 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 408 g

Reihe: Faux Titre

The principal concern of this book (expounded in the first chapter) is to chart the development of literary awareness amongst poets of the later Middle Ages whose marked stance of professional independence led them increasingly to distinguish between their implied literary selves and the first-person speakers of their texts. Four chapters examine, by means of close stylistic analysis, the implications of such detachment taken as a model of binary opposition for the elaboration of the first-person speaker. Thus, in the case of Machaut, the essential distinction is between the first person and the second or third - the 'I' and the Other; with Froissart, between the 'I' of the present and the 'I' of the past; with Deschamps, between the internal 'I' of the poet and a vast array of external personae; with Christine de Pizan between the blueprint of a persona evolved by the poet for her internal 'I' and the transformations implied by its imposition on external personae. The final chapter, on the poetics of debate, explores the means by which the 'I' may be divided in order to arrive at an objective knowledge of both its own nature and of external truths, the ideal expression of which is the written record of the debate itself. It is the primacy of the Book as an autonomous entity which, ultimately, exercises the most far-
reaching influence on the development of the poetic 'I' in this period.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Attwood, Catherine

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Editions. Introduction. Chapter One: The 'I' of the Poet and the Poetic 'I': The Evolution of Literary Awareness in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Introduction. 1: the Status of the Poet. II. The Status of Poetry. III. The Status of the Book. Notes. Chapter Two: The 'I' and the Other: The Poetic 'I' in the Works of Guillaume de Machaut. Introduction. I. Distance and Differentiation: the Example of the Lyric. II. Distance and Differentiation: the Example of the Dit. III. The Uses of Uncertainty. Notes. Chapter Three: The 'I' of the Present and the 'I' of the Past: The Poetic 'I' in the works of Jean Froissart. Introduction. I. The Definition of an Ideal: Decorum. II. The Pursuit of an Ideal: Substitution. III. The Pursuit of an Ideal: Displacement. Conclusion: The Consolidation of the Ideal. Notes.
Chapter Four: The 'I' and Other 'I's: the Poetic 'I' in the Works of Eustache Deschamps. Introduction. I. Antecedents. II. Specificity. III. Diversity. Conclusion: the Fragmentation of the 'I'. Notes. Chapter Five: The 'I' Transformed: The Poeitic 'I' in the Works of Christine de Pizan. Introduction: the Uses of 'Couverture'. I. The Uses of Solitude. II. The Uses of Alterity: A. Metamorphosis; B. The Use of Models; C. A Working Model. Conclusion: Fortune and the 'I'. Notes. Chapter Six: The 'I' Divided: the Poetics of Debate. Introduction: the Example of Fortune. I. Debate as a Self-Fulfilling Medium. II. The 'I' and the Truth: A. The 'I' in External Debate; B. The 'I' in 'Pseudo-External' Debate; C. The 'I' in Internal Debate. Notes. Conclusion. Bibliography - Primary Sources; Secondary Sources.