Chretien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and its Verse Continuations PDF
Preview Chretien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and its Verse Continuations
´ CHRETIEN CONTINUED This page intentionally left blank Chre´tien Continued A Study of the Conte du Graal and its Verse Continuations MATILDA TOMARYN BRUCKNER 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #MatildaTomarynBruckner2009 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2009 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN978–0–19–955721–9(Pbk.) 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 a` mes plus que pe`res et me`re John J. McCann, Peter Haidu, and Nancy Freeman Regalado mentors par excellence This page intentionally left blank Preface Thisbookgrowsoutofacertainsenseofdissatisfaction,thatothersideofdesire. HavingavoidedwritingontheConteduGraalforagoodpartofmycareer,given its unWnished state and the thorny question of religion’s role, which frequently leads to readings that place the complex ambiguity of Chre´tien’s romance on a reductiverack ofallegorical explication,Ipreferred toavoid Percevalin favor of Chre´tien’s other romances. But the Conte eventually proved irresistible: once Keith Busby, Douglas Kelly, and Norris Lacy asked me to write a chapter on intertextuality for The Legacy of Chre´tien de Troyes, I could no longer avoid its claimsasItackleditsrelationshiptothePercevalContinuations. Dissatisfaction and desire combined to make me, like so many others, a prisoner of what continues to seem like the unattainable achievement of the Grail, no matter how many endings accumulate for Chre´tien’s initial romance. But I determined to Wnd a better way—better at least from my critical view- point—to deal with the issues of religion atypically inserted into the Arthurian world,amoresatisfyingwaytounderstandhowtheyrelatetotheotherpartsof Chre´tien’s romance. Through analysis of narrative and structure, I followed the religiousstrandsinconjunctionwithothermajorthreadsoftheromance,courtly and chivalric issues that caught my puzzled attention, especially points of contradiction that marked the paths of my (re)reading and, it seemed to me, that of successive continuators who were also reading Chre´tien. Eventually I discoveredthattheapparentlyrandomaccumulationofarticlesandpaperssuch analyses generated, at Wrstindependent of each other,later broughttogether, in factretracedthethree-partsetsofadvicePercevalreceivedthreetimes—asifeven we dull readers, like the simpleton Perceval, must eventually get the message, unconsciouslyandthen,ifwearepersistent,moreconsciouslyandperhapsmore constructively. Hence this book and my argument, pursued from chapter to chapter, that Chre´tien’s authorship appears (however surprisingly for modern readers) not onlyinthe9,000versesofhisunWnishedromancebutacrossfourcontinuations whosesuccessiveauthorsfollowtheguidinghandinscribedin‘theoldPerceval’. I do not spend much time at the Grail Castle: it has already received so much attention. I have preferred to look elsewhere to pursue less obvious points of dialoguebetweenChre´tienandthecontinuators.Butthereagainyouwillseethat I have eventually been lured back to the Fisher King’s castle and the Grail, as I move toward the end of this quest. And so, this is not a book about the Grail...thoughitisabookabouttheStoryoftheGrail. In pursuit of that story, I have beneWted from the help and support of many people and institutions. I would Wrst like to thank the presses who granted me viii Preface permission to reproduce material from already published articles: Editions Rodopi,Rowman&LittleWeld,LibrairieDroz,Ku¨mmerleVerlag,andPalgrave Macmillan.PartsofChapter1arebasedonBruckner(2006a);Bruckner(1996) forms the basis of Chapter 3. Earlier stages of the fourth chapter appear in Bruckner(1999),(2003a),and(2003b).Finally,Bruckner(2000a)providesthe startingpointforChapter5. IwouldalsoliketoexpressmygratitudetotheBibliothe`quenationaledeFrance forpermissiontoreproducethemanuscriptimagesthatappearonthedustjacket and throughout the book. In particular, Iwould like to thank Philippe Aveline who steered me to the wonderful transferability of digital images and saved me fromtheproblemsofmistakenordersandtheperilsofinternationaldelivery. Amongcolleaguesandfriends,mypersonalandprofessionalthanksgoWrstto Douglas, Keith, and Norris, who started me on this path and supported me in multiplewaysalongthebywaysthatledWnallytoendingit.Iamalsogratefultoa number of colleagues who read parts of the manuscript in the form of earlier papersandarticles,oraschaptersintheprocessofrevisionforthebook:Ihave beneWtedgreatlyfromthefeedbackofVirginieGreeneandSophieMarnetteon Chapter 1, Zrinka Stahuljak on Chapters 2 and 3, Peggy McCracken who encountered an early form of the conclusion when she invitedme to speak in a session at Kalamazoo on ‘Gender and the Grail’ and a version of Chapter 3 presented to the Medieval Seminar at the University of Michigan in October 2005. My thanks to all the participants in that seminar for their receptive eyes and ears: Elizabeth Allen, Theresa Coletti, Kathy Lavezzo, Paula Leverage, and AndreaTarnowski.Inparticular,IwouldliketothankKathyforhersuggestion thatthe imageofthelady andthe tentmightserve asanemblem formyentire book. Several friends and colleagues were instrumentalin introducing me to diVer- entWeldsofstudyconnectedtothisproject.FransvanLierewasmostgenerousin sharingwithmehisexpertiseintheareasofbiblicalreceptionandexegesisinthe MiddleAges.DrJosephYoungermangavemeadviceandhisowncollectionof books and articles for my introduction to the works and theories of Melanie Klein. An anonymous reader for OUP encouraged me to situate the Perceval ContinuationsinthewidercontextofGrailstories(particularlybutnotonlyin the English tradition), in order to show their common concerns and open my booktoawidergroupofreaderswhocouldbeneWtfromanoverviewofhowthe versecontinuationscontributetolaterrewritingsoftheGrailstory.Toallofthem IoVermygratitudeandthanks. SimonGaunt,whoservedasoneofthereadersforOUP,wasequallygenerousin hissupportformybook,notleastinrecognizingtheimportanceofrediscovering theWrstGrailromanceinitsmedievalcontextaspartofanensembleofromance continuations brought into alignment in a variety of medieval compilations. IoVer him heartfelt thanks bothforspeciWc suggestions for the revision process (includingintegrationofmanuscriptillustrations),aswellashisgeneralconcern Preface ix that the book be accessible to readers beyond the usual suspects of Chre´tien devotees.IthankOxfordUniversityPressforacceptinghisandtheotherreader’s recommendations. As I have passed successively through the expert hands of Valerie Shelley, Andrew McNeillie, and Jacqueline Baker, each of my editors at OUPhasservedasavaluableguide.Mythankstoallofthemfortheirsupport, patience, and precision. I would also like to thank Jennifer Dunn, a doctoral studentatBostonCollegewhoseworkonorganizingtheindexwasindispensable. Thanks and gratitude for technical support go as well to Robyn Ochs in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, where Iwas a Visiting Professor of French through the Wnal stages of preparing allthematerialsforpublication.AsIthinkbacktothebeginningofthisprocess, IcannotforgetSarahKaywhosuggestedthatIconsiderpublishingwithOxford: aspecialthankyouforherconWdenceandencouragement. Support received in the form of grants, not to mention letters of recommen- dation for grant proposals, played an important role in helping me secure the extendedtimeneededtobringsuchalarge-scaleprojecttoitsconclusion.Warm thanksforthethanklesstaskofwritingthoselettersgoestoE.JaneBurns,Kevin Brownlee, Peter Haidu, David Hult, Douglas Kelly, Peggy McCracken, and Nancy Freeman Regalado. I am grateful to Boston College for awarding me a numberofresearchfellowships,grants,andsabbaticals,aswellastotheNational Endowment for the Humanities for naming me a Fellow for the calendar year 2006. Please note that any views, Wndings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this book do not necessarily reXect those of the National Endow- mentfortheHumanities. Words will not be suYcient but must nevertheless be pressed into service to thank most particularly Peter Haidu and Nancy Regalado, two friends and colleagues who have been my constant teachers and mentors over many years. Both of them read the complete manuscript in its earliest state and helped me discover what I had left unsaid, unexplained, unarticulated, unjustiWed. My revisions may not have answered all their questions nor reached their highest standards, but the Wnal shape of this book owes them both a debt of gratitude that cannot Wnally be repaid. To Peter, my thanks for the intellectual nourish- ment he has unfailingly oVered and my gratitude for his ever sharp critique combined with unshakable enthusiasm for my work. To Nancy, my thanks for herever-renewedgiftofselfexpressedinanuncannyabilitytoputherselfinthe service of another person’s point of view, to search out every nook and cranny, from titles to stylistic tics, from the general argument to speciWc details, as she forcedmetoWgureoutwhatIwastryingtosay.Thisbookisdedicatedtothem andtoJohnJ.McCann,friendofmanyyears,myearliestmentorandWrstFrench teacher who back in high school inspired me and put me on the ‘droit chemin’ whose curious twists and turns I continue to follow. My deepest thanks to all three.
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