The thesis considers the depiction and function of maternal characters within late twelfth and thirteenth-century texts, a topos which varies according to genre. The main generic category of the study is that of the <I>chanson de geste, </I>with additional chapters on romance, and on didactic literature pertaining to women. The ideological constructs of contemporary religious and medical teachings on the feminine/maternal provide an introduction and a background to the study, while modern feminist theory is used as a methodological and critical approach. The first chapter examines the inherent ambiguity of didactic texts, including those by Etienne de Fougères, Raymond Llull and Philippe de Novarre. The prescription of a code of ideal female conduct is here implicitly and constantly undercut by the sexualisation of the female body through the very strategies of writing which would seek to contain it, a problem which appears notably in Robert de Blois' <I>Chastoiement des Dames. </I>The authoritative stance taken by these texts is haunted by a fear that the very prescription of an ideal of behaviour may be symptomatic of failure, a disquiet also given voice by the many negative examples they cite. A tension is thus produced between the projected containment of female sexuality and the intimation that didactic writing always, by form and by content, undercuts its own prescriptive enterprise. Chapter 2 studies the role of the mother in the romance, in particular <I>Guillaume de Dole </I>and <I>La Manekine. </I>These texts reflect the concerns of didactic literature in their emphasis on female chastity and fidelity. Chapters 3-5 then compare the depiction of maternal characters in the <I>chanson de geste. </I>Although <I>chansons de geste </I>(e.g. the <I>Crusade Cycle </I>and <I>Berte as Grans Piés</I>) and romance both appear to subscribe to an idealised and ideologically-conforming model of femininity, in the <I>chanson de geste </I>constructions of the maternal are often undercut by the narrative disquiet which these can produce.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:661969 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Sinclair, Fionnùala Ealasaid |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26938 |
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