We show, by internal analysis of the texts and references to other contemporary texts, that from 1470 to 1550 the French polyphonic chanson reveals more than ever before a strong tendency to pertain to the "popular" and its related categories, the "carnavalesque" and the "grotesque". From a corpus of close to a thousand popular chansons selected according to the courtly and "good life" "registers", we can assert that, in spite of the essentially learned dimension of polyphonic music, it is the textual component that seems to be popular. This is what indicates the study of their carnavalesque images and the analysis of the grotesque structures of the "cris", the combinative chansons, the "caquets" and the "fricassees", the latter proving to be real crossroads where chansons of the time parade. Our theoretical reflections on the notion of "popular", necessary to justify the use of the concept in a corpus whose texts are usually anonymous, prompts us to both avoid source studies and issues of production and reception, by defining the "popular" as an aesthetic category based on stylistic and rhetorical conventions. In this perspective, the principal characteristic of these chansons consists in the omnipresence of the imperative calls to the participation in the "good life", all of which belong to a popular version of the carpe diem. While a type of carnavalesque chanson accumulates the motifs "dansons", "chansons" and "buvons", many constitute often obscene variants of "baisez-moi", and others multiply military orders. The occurrences of these imperative motifs, usually appearing in direct discourse, confirm, with partially imperative imprecations, a vocabulary of the public place, onomatopeia and plays on words, the orality of the register and its belonging to a popular level of discourse corresponding to a less elevated style than the low style of rhetoric.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.82934 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Michaud, Philippe |
| Contributors | Desrosiers-Bonin, Diane (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Département de langue et littérature françaises.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001982699, proquestno: AAINQ88530, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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