This thesis examines the extensive revival of the sonnet in French nineteenth century poetry and explores its various roles, analytical, "musical," descriptive, and formalistic, in the works of eleven major authors. Surprisingly, use of the genre in this period has attracted little detailed critical attention. The few general studies concentrate on the orthodoxy or otherwise of the sonnet rhyme-scheme but do not relate this to content and expression. Criticism of individual authors, however, is primarily concerned with themes, imagery or biography. Versification figures only marginally and is rarely considered in conjunction with patterns of argument, metaphor, rhythm and sound within the individual poems. This thesis aims to some extent to fill this gap where the sonnet is concerned. It shows how "regularity" or "irregularity" of rhyme-scheme in themselves are poor indicators of the coherence of a sonnet and how poetic quality in the genre depends rather on how successfully the writer has matched thematic and formal structures. The choice and handling of the sonnet by the various authors naturally reflects general preoccupations of the time: the new interest in lyric poetry, the association of poetry and music on the one hand, poetry and plastic art on the other, the move towards an aesthetic of the short poem, the influence of Poe, the emphasis on forrnal technique. This study endeavours to set the contributions of the different authors against the background of these trends but concentrates on analysing the role of the sonnet within the work of the individual poets.

The thesis constitutes a study of the life and work of the French poet, Henry-Auguste Barbier, (1805-1882, ) examined in their relations to each other and to the age in which the writer lived. After a preliminary chapter on the family and home life of Barbier, his education, his training as a student of law, and his first introduction t4 literary circles, the lambes. (1832,) his greatest, and first published work of any importance, have been studied in detail. Their influence left the age has been emphasised, their literary importance revealed. This is the high point of Barbier's career. Coming does so early in his life, an attempt has been made to throw into sharp contrast the increasing mediocrity of the works which follow. Two volumes of verse, II Pianto, (l833,) Lazare,(1837,) inspired by visits to Italy and England respectively, claimed considerable attention and the question of Italian and English influences generally on the young poet proved a fruitful field of research. After 1840 Barbier's life is rarely relieved from the monotony of the bourgeois ease his increased fortune now permits; and though the works which follow Lazare are numerous, rarely has the genius and enthusiasm of the poet's youth revealed itself afresh. Almost all literary genres are represented in thisi^ later work, poems, short stories, travel, literary and artistic criticism, memoirs, translations^ moral observations. Much of his work was published in his lifetime much also remained for posthumous publication by the poet's literary executors.

French poetry of the second half of the nineteenth century differed from earlier poetry in both the scope and subtlety of its treatment of contemporary reality. This poetic practice was based on a body of aesthetic and other philosophical thinking as well as a general awareness of the distinctive qualities of the new age. Modernist poets like Barbier, Du Camp and some of the Romantics had concentrated their efforts on the straight forward description or discussion of modern phenomena, events or social conditions in much the same way as some contemporary painters. Many poets felt a deep antipathy towards the modern age; some such as Leconte de Lisle avoided it in their work almost completely, but others contrasted it with a primitivist vision and the resulting tension is one of the dynamic aspects of their poetry. After 1870 this is particularly striking in the case of Rimbaud. A major new approach to the treatment of contemporary reality in art had been found in the aesthetic theory and poetic practice of Baudelaire which was of the utmost influence upon the succeeding generation. In Baudelaire's work was perhaps the first indication of a realisation of the aesthetic value not merely of generally modern but of specifically transitory phenomena. This may be seen as lying at the base of the perspectives, themes and language of the most important poetry produced in France in the years 1870-1887 with the near total exception of the work of Mallarme. In that period poets progressed from the realistic treatment of modernity to the creation of a radical new flexible poetic language to evoke a relativist, individual and utterly modem conception of the most fleeting and elusive experiences and phenomena of mind, emotion and sensation. One important ingredient in the new poetic language was the spontaneous and Affective element of ordinary speech, the value of which had been partly appreciated through the cenacle performances. The transition from superficial modernism to impressionism and then to a synthesis of external reality and emotion was closely matched and possibly encouraged by developments in painting.

This thesis is a study of Boreal's version of the Tristan legend. Its aim is a better understanding of the romance through an examination of the work itself and of those versions of the legend with which it is associated. Part One of the thesis begins with a survey of the manuscript and of the various editions and goes on to suggest the policy that might be adopted when a more reliable text is sought. (The three appendices are also concerned with textual problems.) There then follow - a review of Tristan scholarship and an appraisal of the relationship between the various representatives of the legend. Beroul's romance is seen as an independent derivative of a lost work and as an influence upon the Folie Tristan of Berne. In Part Two, each of the episodes in Beroul's work is examined. If an episode is also found in other versions, the parallel accounts are scrutinized and emphasis is laid upon those elements which are found to be quite peculiar to our romance. Those episodes in the romance which have no equivalent elsewhere are also examined and suggestions are made as to their possible provenance. At the same time, the structure of the romance is compared with that of other versions. Beroul emerges as a writer who has on occasion re-ordered inherited episodes, in order to present more clearly his own conception of the legend. In the Conclusion, the significance of the parallel versions is ascertained, before Beroul's own conception of the legend is determined. Beroul consistently presents Tristan and Iseut as guilty sinners, but who are yet never beyond redemption, and he draws on theological support in order to suggest that by the end of the romance they are set on the road to salvation.

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This thesis explores Guillaume de Palerne as a self-reflexive romance in which twelfth-century practices of writing, rewriting, and reading are reflected in the narrative. As a romance excluded from the main corpus of texts analysed in medieval studies, Guillaume suffered from critical neglect throughout much of the twentieth century. However, a recent rise in interest in this work has called for its integration into mainstream scholarship. This study develops this trend by examining the contribution that Guillaume can make to existing knowledge of romance production and reception. Detailed analysis of Guillaume and its main themes is presented alongside discussion of the intertextual rewriting found within the text. Taking a bipartite form divided into four chapters, the first half of the study explores transformation, before moving on to the notions of doubling and correspondence, and finally to recognition. The thesis argues that the ‘intertextual game of romance’ played between poet and audience is reflected in the Guillaume narrative through the stress placed on transformation and recognition. By exploring doubling and correspondence, this analysis also highlights the relationship between transformation and recognition in the narrative, which in turn mirrors the partnership between poet and audience in romance creation. With its primary focus on the text, this study is facilitated by an engagement with theoretical frameworks, particularly of intertextuality, that discuss medieval composition and reception, stemming both from medieval studies and from modern literary theory. The thesis argues for a holistic approach to examining texts such as Guillaume, stressing the importance of simultaneously exploring both the intra- and extra-diegetic spheres of this work. In so doing, it sheds new light on this overlooked text, and argues for acknowledgement of the place held by Guillaume in the development of French romance.

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Cette these porte sur la description des differents combats dans les romans de Chretien de Troyes. Elle considere la narration de l'action guerriere comme une dynamique creant un reseau symbolique qui sous-tend toute l'oeuvre de Chretien. Meme s'i! y ~ une large variete de formes de combats dans les romans de Chretien de Troyes, meme s'i! y a certaines nuances dans les procedes narratifs les decrivant, la vision morale les habitant est la meme et chaque recit de combat illustre un conflit moral regIe par Ie meme systeme de valeurs souverain. La these analysant la description des combats, les elements statiques entourant ces affrontements ne sont pas au centre de l'analyse, sans toutefois etre laisses de cote. TIs ont par Ie passe fait l'objet de beaucoup d'attention, laissant souvent la description elle-meme negligee. L'objectifde Ia these .' est precisement de montrer l'importance de la narration dans l'illustiation de la signification symbolique des affrontements. Le contexte historique n'est jamais ignore, etant essentiel notamment ala comprehension de la dimension realiste de l'oeuvre du poete champenois. La these est divisee selon les differentes formes d'affrontement, ce qui met en reliefles similarites des cinq romans. Le premier chapitre ~e consacre aux combats dans la litterature du XIIe siecle, montrant en quoi Chretien differait de ses contemporains. Le second analyse les duels importants dans les oeuvres de Chretien, lesquels se trouvent d'habitude au debut et ala fm de l'intrigue. Les duels etablissent l'adversaire d~ heros arthurien comme un adversaire-miroir, un double menll9ant. Le troisieme chapitre porte sur les combats episodiques, notamment les combats contre Ie senechal Keu, et explique egalement la dichotomie entre les affrontements dans Le Conte du Graal et les oeuvres precedentes de Chretien. Le quatrieme chapitre se penche sur les combats contre deux adversaires ou plus et sur les affrontements contre les monstres. Enfin ledernier chapitre porte sur les plus rares batailles rangees, presentes chez Chretien sous la forme de guerres de petite -ou grande echelle ou de tournois.

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