Josep Vallverdú has been largely acclaimed as a children’s author because he has been one of the favourite writers of young Catalans since the beginning of his career in the 1960s. For Vallverdú, both children’s literature and translation provided the means to recover Catalan literature and culture, while also fulfilling his literary vocation. Especially since the late 1980s, he also composed essays and what he calls personal books («llibres personals»), which include an extensive variety of forms such as memoirs, diaries, articles for the press, essays commenting on his own writings and books on travelling in Catalonia and elsewhere. The analysis of the different fields within which he has been active explains for the first time that his books for young readers have received the most outstanding prizes and other forms of recognition and popularity. This is thanks to their excellence in the crafting of characters, the use of the various narrative voices and rhythm. However, the success of his personal books is more limited and they have often been praised as contributions that document a historical period as seen by one of their main actors. The presence of disappointment in his later diaries raises the question of whether Vallverdú regrets not having achieved greater renown as a writer or whether he is disillusioned because the collective project of Catalan cultural recovery for which he has always fought has not been achieved. His willingness to gain recognition in various fields also brought him to explore crossover literature (or writing for young adults) with two novels inspired by the adventure classics Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island. The two sequels share many features with his titles for younger readers, and analysis of these works opens the way to research concerning the boundaries between literature for different readerships in the author’s work; this thesis also brings to the fore the influence of Vallverdú's translations on his own novels and the links between the different parts of his literary production.

This thesis considers how dialectic, dialogue and debate contribute to the construction of the courtly subject in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Old French and Occitan lyric and narrative. It considers how debate and dialogue are informed by dialectic, which acts as a structural and thematic frame and gives courtly debate its distinctive oppositional tone. I argue that dialectic underpins debate lyrics; dialogues within narrative texts; and monologues (within lyrics and narratives) which break down into clear internal dialogue, or which use formal structures which are suggestive of dialogue. Chapter one stands as an introduction to the substantial tradition of debate both in Occitan and in Northern French. Chapter two considers a major theme in courtly literature, silence and secrecy, in the context of debate. Chapter three addresses dialogic forms within monologue, whether in single-voiced lyric poems or in monologues delivered by characters in narrative texts. Chapter four examines women’s desire, within the framework of dialogue, asking how dialogue shapes and constructs the feminine voice. Each chapter considers a range of courtly lyrics that are not in dialogue form, but which use the formal properties of dialogue, in addition to contemporary verse narratives. Research questions include what dialogue can tell us about the construction of the speaking voice in courtly literature; how dialogue constructs the feminine voice; and how dialogue inscribes cultural difference.

The introduction considers the loss of much troubadour poetry, explains why any literary evaluation of Rudel's lyrics must be tentative, and briefly discusses Rudel's music. The first chapter treats Rudel's social background as a lord of Blaye, the few facts known about his life, and various attempts to identify the beloved of his poems. It studies the history of Blaye, its linguistic situation, Rudel's genealogy, his friendships and later popularity - due, not only to his poetry and music, but to his legendary love for a lady overseas. After examining the truth of an Occitan biography which claims Rudel loved a countess of Tripoli, the chapter Judges other theories that his beloved was Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Virgin Mary or a personification of the Holy Land. A critical edition of Rudel's lyrics follows discussion of their order and attribution in the manuscripts. Previous editions are cited and the manuscripts located. The lyrics are presented with variant readings and comprehensive notes, which classify the manuscripts, discuss stanza-order, stanzaic structure, linguistic points, and justify proposed readings. Latin quotations from lost works, an index of proper names and a selective glossary are included. Finally, Rudel's poetry is studied as courtly rhetoric intended to win physical love. Rudel does not aspire to transcendental, joi. His imagery, flattery and insistence upon reciprocity would tempt, cajole or oblige the lady to return his love. His hypocritical courtly mask, which sometimes slips to reveal self-interest, suggests that he deserves some reward for his virtues. To excuse the lady's indifference, Rudel blames other obstacles, principally geographical distance. To win sympathy, he claims that his dreams are disillusioned or deny him satisfaction. The appendix contains sixty-two photographs of all relevant folios in the manuscripts.

This thesis analyses the work of Catalan author Quim Monzó in relation to the transformations that Catalan culture has undergone from the early 1970s until the present day. Despite the undeniable complexity and diversity of Monzó’s oeuvre, critical studies have tended to follow set patterns, often focusing on his literary production and discussing postmodernist aesthetics in his fiction, while tending to avoid engaging with the political ideologies underpinning it. This thesis, by contrast, explores the multifaceted nature of Monzó’s trajectory by focusing on a wide range of materials (his fictional texts and regular opinion pieces in the Catalan press, his political cartoons, his translations and his participation in mass media and social networks) through a methodology that combines cultural analysis as well as sociocultural and political commentary with the critical tools provided by Bourdieu’s sociological theories of culture, gender studies and postmodernist cultural theory. With the overarching aim of driving forward a new understanding of Quim Monzó’s trajectory and of the contemporary Catalan cultural field, this thesis concentrates on two interrelated strands of analysis. Firstly, it argues that Monzó’s literary and intellectual programme both accelerated and critically responded to the decline of the resistentialist cultural model and the advent of the discourses of Catalan cultural normalisation under postmodernism and its associated framework of cultural marketisation. Specifically, the thesis analyses Monzó’s public trajectory from countercultural artist in the 1970s to celebrity author and intellectual in the present day as a phenomenon that has brought to the fore some of the contradictions in the discourse of Catalan cultural normalisation vis-à-vis postmodernist attitudes towards the symbolic roles of culture and the public intellectual. Secondly, the thesis addresses the unremitting presence of a series of political themes and debates in Monzó’s work, with a view to examining how the author’s work interacts with some of the socio-cultural and political transformations of his time, in particular the ongoing Catalan-Spanish national debate and its centrality during the Spanish Transition to democracy, the emergence of libertarian and neoconservative ideologies in Spain and the growing influence of feminist thought. All in all, the thesis contributes both to Monzonian scholarship and the study of the contemporary Catalan cultural field by arguing that there is a singular, intricate and productive relation between the author’s work and its cultural and political context.

No description available.

No description available.

Since the poems of Marcabru contain criticisms of twelfth-century aristocratic society, an attempt has been made initially to determine, as far as this is possible, his place in and relationship to that society. Marcabru's representation of female figures is considered in the light of the contrast he establishes between true and false love, itself an aspect of an ideological and poetic conflict with contemporary troubadours concerning the nature of love and its expression in lyric poetry. This theme of the dichotomy of love pervades Marcabru's works. The means by which it finds expression are explored through consideration of the vocabulary, images and sources on which the troubadour draws in order to convey approbation of finamors and condemnation of false love. Several of the studies focus on individual poems (PC 293, 31; 44; 25; 26; 15), of particular interest for the striking and detailed depictions of love and women which they contain: in analysing these songs in detail, reference is made to other songs where these elucidate particular ideas or images, and consideration is given to elements deriving from learned Christian orthodoxy and especially its misogynist tradition. Examination of apparently unorthodox uses of courtly terminology and lyric commonplaces suggests that these also are employed by Marcabru to convey his consistently radical view. Dejeanne's edition of Marcabru's works has been taken as a basis for this investigation, and attention is also paid to proposed corrections to this edition, recent partial re-editions and to the manuscript readings. In all cases account has been taken of previous interpretations and of the development of critical opinion concerning Marcabru's works. These studies are intended to complement existing work by attempting to elucidate the conception of love of this complex and influential troubadour through an investigation of his treatment of a number of representative female figures.

Franklin H. Moss and Adrian Segall. / Bibliography: p. 72. / "September 1978." / Supported by the Advanced Research Project Agency (monitored by ONR) under Contract no. N00014-75-C-1183 Technion Research and Development Foundation Ltd. no. 050-383

Boethius, a late Roman philosopher, composed his last work, De Consolatione Philosophiae, while in prison. His final effort crowned a lifetime of philosophical achievement, and the work was influential throughout the Middle Ages. Frequently translated, the Consolation was one of the books which was chosen by Alfred, a ninth century Anglo-Saxon king, for use in the rebuilding of his kingdom after the Danish invasions. Although intended for an audience which was heavily influenced by a lively pagan tradition, the book was re-interpreted during the Carolingian period to conform to a strict Christian standard. Alfred's own interpretation is indicative of this amalgamation of ancient learning in the milieu of an emerging European culture, as well as his own pragmatic personality.

The political implications of the OE prose translations of King Alfred (849-899) are overlooked by scholars who focus on the literary merits of the texts. When viewed as propaganda, Alfred's writings show a careful reshaping of their Latin sources that reaffirms Alfred's claim to power. The preface to Pastoral Care, long understood to be the inauguration of Alfred's literary reforms, is invested with highly charged language and a dramatic reinvention of English history, which both reestablishes the social hierarchy with the king more firmly in place at its head and constructs the inevitability of what is actually a quite radical translation project. The translations themselves reshape their readers' understanding of kingship, even while creating implicit comparison between Alfred and the Latin authors.