acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Twentieth century critics have begun to reconsider Chretien de Troyes' romances as literary works, paying less attention to source studies, historical analyses, and exegeses of possible Scriptural or Patristic symbolism. Using the principles outlined in the rhetorical manuals in wide use during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, scholars have sought to enumerate the techniques of ornamentation available to Chretien de Troyes and examine how the champenois master embellished his romances with them. At the same time, modern critics recognize the limitations of textbook rhetoric and acknowledge that while it may be fundamental to the poet's style, it is by no means exclusive of original, personal poetics The Rhetorica ad Herennium, widely read and imitated in the twelfth century, makes a distinction between effictio, physical description, and notatio, character drawing. Although much more discussion is devoted to the latter figure than the former in both the Rhetorica ad Herennium and its subsequent imitations, little if any modern critical attention has been paid to character drawing as a commonplace in the vernacular literature of the Middle Ages. The relationship between physical appearance and character has been mentioned occasionally, but not analyzed. However, Chretien frequently follows the dicta of the manuals in balancing effictiones with notationes, permitting great natural beauty to reflect a surpassing exquisiteness of virtue In his first Arthurian romance Chretien includes three minor female characters who demonstrate the poet's capacity for portraying secondary personages. The weeping amie of Cadoc illustrates Chretien's skill in depicting mood changes, while Enide's two cousins represent extemes of generosity and selfishness. Enide is a woman of perfect virtue, completely idealized by the author. Her lack of self-interest and her absolute submission to Erec attest to the dominance of a pre-courtois ideal in the romance Chretien introduces the interior monologue into his Arthurian romances in Cliges. This permits a new perspective upon character drawing by bringing about a shift from descriptio to ratiocinatio and interpretatio. In both sections of the romance, the poet permits his audience access to the thoughts of the personages in order to elicite subjective recognition of them Two of the damsels encountered by Lancelot in the Chevalier de la Charrete demand favors from the great knight: one asks for the head of Lancelot's defeated adversary, while the other requires a sexual recompense for her hospitality. Guenievre, the object of the chevalier's search, is the central figure among Chretien's female personages. She is the only woman who appears in all the romances, and the variety of feelings that she displays permits the poet to embellish his portrait of her with a plethora of figures With the Yvain, Chretien begins to shift from representation of the courtois ideal to a more realistic appraisal of the role of women in medieval society. This notationes of minor female personages reflect this shift as he portrays maidens who suffer as a result of injustice, rather than love. Lunete and Laudine are the poet's finest examples of counterpoint characterization; the rational, articulate brunette stands in contrast to the highly emotional, imperious blonde In Perceval, Chretien continues his reduction of the roles of female personages. The three women of whom there is extensive notatio differ from all others in the preceding romances. Blancheflor uses her beauty to minipulate Perceval into doing what she wants, la pucele as mances petites demonstrate the innocence and frivolity of childhood, and la male pucele incarnates cruelty. The secondary female characters, with one exception, are women who suffer because of injustice and alienation / acase@tulane.edu

Chretien de Troyes weaves the Christian religion into the very fabric of his Conte del Graal; yet most critics have underestimated the pervasiveness of its religious elements. Some studies suggest Catharist, gnostic, or even more arcane influences on the work This investigation offers a critical analysis of Chretien's text, paying attention to dogmatic, devotional, liturgical, and moral themes. Under these thematic headings it examines pertinent passages, comparing them with corresponding theological, liturgical, and socio-historical materials from the poet's era The religious doctrine expressed in Chretien's narrative differs on all counts from Catharism and other heresies; it is orthodoxly Christian This investigation also develops corollary topics, such as the significance of the complete omission of the name of God from the speech of certain characters, the particularity of each set of instructions given Perceval, prejudices against Jews, the orthodoxy of calling Christ 'the holy prophet,' the reasons for naming certain saints, the Hermit's 'secret prayer,' and the sacrament of ordination to knighthood. Ultimately, it treats of the Grail and the Grail cortege and of Perceval's sin and conversion Essentially a psychological study of a young man's growth into maturity and of an adult knight's coping with the foils of human life, the narrative is set in a world reminiscent of the author's own milieu, with all its disorders, but with its Christian faith as well. Every major article of the Christian creed finds expression somehow in the Conte. Indeed, the poet develops the popular preoccupations and theological emphases of twelfth-century Christianity. Varied references to liturgy prepare us to comprehend the Grail scene and to appreciate that the Grail is neither magic nor mystery, but metaphor for the sacrament of the Eucharist. As regards the guilt of Perceval, examples of mistake, wrongdoing, and sin enable us to distinguish between the accusation of others and the reality of Perceval's own conscience. Overall, the Conte del Graal, though true to life in its description of the problematic, eschews pessimistic doom to portray mercy and reintegration, with an optimism founded on belief in the divine redemption of humanity / acase@tulane.edu

Thesis--London, 1930. / Bibliographical notes at end of each chapter.

Anglo-Saxon legal concepts, particularly the principles of feud and dispute resolution, have a demonstrable influence on the themes and narrative structure of Beowulf. Beowulf's three main monster fights, with Grendel, Grendel's mother and the dragon, may be legally analyzed to determine why the hero has greater difficulties in each fight--in each, the hero's antagonist has a progressively stronger legal right to resistance, from the negligible legal position of Grendel up through the very ambiguous legal rights of the dragon in the final fight. An extremely important influence on each fight is the Anglo-Saxon concept of guardianship over place, or mund, which gives a legal dimension to the poem's emphasis on the sacrosanct and inviolable nature of the "close"--the great meadhall Heorot, or the gudsele ("battle-hall") of the Grendel kin or the eordsele ("earth-hall") of the dragon--and the relative justice of armed forays into such spaces.

Thesis--London, 1930. / Bibliographical notes at end of each chapter.