The Polarization of the Feminine in Arthurian and Troubadour Literature

268 Pages·1980·8.472 MB·English

by  Marian Mesrobian Maccurdy

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8026370
MacCurdy, Marian Mesrobian
THE POLARIZATION OF THE FEMININE IN ARTHURIAN AND
TROUBADOUR LITERATURE
Syracuse University PH.D. 1980
University
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International
300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 18 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4EJ, England
Copyright 1980
by
MacCurdy, Marian Mesrobian
All Rights Reserved
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THE POLARIZATION OF THE FEMININE IN ARTHURIAN
AND TROUBADOUR LITERATURE
by
MARIAN MESROBIAN MACCURDY
B. A ., Syracuse U niversity. 1966
M. A ., Syracuse U niversity, 1972
DISSERTATION
Subm itted in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the requirem ents for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Hum anities in
the Graduate School of Syracuse U niversity
May 1980
Approved,
Date 21.,
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PREFACE
A study of the o rig in s of co u rtly love completed
in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the requirem ents for a Master of
A rts degree in E nglish led me to an awareness of the
ultim ate f u tility of h is to ric a l stu d ies of th is lite ra tu re .
One can c e rta in ly discover much in te re stin g data, hut the
e s se n tia l m ystery of the genesis of anything so nebulous
as co u rtly love rem ains. C ritic s even question whether i t
a c tu a lly ex isted or i f i t is the re s u lt of some w ild
im aginings on the p a rt of over-zealous sch o lars, some
long since dead.
Yet the troubadour image of the pow erful goddess­
lik e female does recur often enough to ra ise questions.
And indeed a woman being so lely responsible for the safe­
keeping of the sacram ental G rail is a n tith e tic a l to the
workings of the m edieval Church which p rohibited women
i i
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from adm inistering communion. The image of the pow erful
Lady of the Lake who conferred upon A rthur the very source
o f h is power— his sword E xcalibur— e sp e c ia lly in trig u ed me.
I decided, then, to abandon, a t le a s t up to the p o in t of
prudence, h is to ric a l study in favor of them atic c ritic ism .
The follow ing is the r e s u lt of th a t d ecision.
i i i
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CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE.............................................................................................................. i i
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 1
II. GNOSTICISM AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY . . . . 19
III. THE RISE OF COURTLY LITERATURE ........................ 82
IV. ARTHURIAN LITERATURE AND CHAUCER'S
TR O ILU S........................................................................................ 173
BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................... 254
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA ...................................................................................
iv
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In the lite ra tu re of the troubadours and the
A rthurian legend, recu rrin g fem inine images appear to have
g reat power over the persona and/or ch aracters. We have
only to look a t the poetry of the tw elfth -cen tu ry
Provencal Bernard de Ventadorn or the ch aracter of Morgan
in the fo u rteen th -cen tu ry M iddle English a llite ra tiv e poem
S ir Gawain and the Green K night to discover the ex ten t of
the power of these fem inine images. These often goddess­
lik e images appear to c o n tra d ic t the so cio lo g ical, p o litic a l,
and economic r e a litie s for women in the Middle Ages. This
apparent paradox— goddess images in a m ale-dom inated
c u ltu re — can be c la rifie d by the Jungian theory of the
com pensatory nature of the unconscious. M asculine-dom­
inated C h ristia n ity made l i t t l e provision for the fem inine
aspects of God u n til the la te M iddle Ages, when popular
in sisten ce on the im portance of the V irgin Mary n ecessitated
th is . Nor, then, were provisions made for the fem inine,
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in tu itiv e side of man. Therefore a h iatu s occurred between
m asculine and fem inine, conscious and unconscious. This
d iss e rta tio n w ill attem pt to show th a t fem inine images in
troubadour poetry and selected A rthurian lite ra tu re are
p o larized : th a t is , they are e ith e r extrem ely negative
p o rtray als or highly p o sitiv e ones. When the images are
p o sitiv e the function of the fem inine is to lead man upward
to the s p iritu a l realm s, but when the images are negative,
the fem inine becomes a figure of danger who can tra p man
in to the m aterial, the world of base m atter, thereby
endangering his imm ortal soul.
This study is based on a m uch-debated issue in
C h ristian and G nostic theology: is the physical universe
to be loved as a product of God, as a p a rt of His creatio n ,
or is i t to be denied as e v il a t w orst or a hindrance a t
best? Both orthodox and heterodox C h ristian theology have
long been immersed in th is dilemma, but no permanent
so lu tio n has been agreed on th a t com pletely resolves the
problem of the o rig in s of e v il and su fferin g . The th esis
of th is study is th a t the image of woman is the focal
po in t for a ll th is controversy regarding the good or
e v il nature of the physical world, for she is the immediate
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3
vehicle for fu rth er incarnations of souls in m atter. If
the physical world is seen as a place of su ffe rin g , then
woman— the vehicle for drawing souls down in to m atter—
can be held a t le a s t p a rtly responsible for human su ffe r­
ing. Sex, then, becomes, i f not sin fu l, sim ply l i t t l e
valued if the goal is the world of the s p ir it. And woman,
as the most obvious object of male d e sire , is made to
rep resen t lu s t and then is held responsible for it. W ithin
e a rly and m edieval C h ristia n ity th is a ttitu d e is apparent
from St. Paul to the Council of T rent in 1563, as we w ill
see la te r. In a co ro llary to th is a ttitu d e to the physical
w orld, when the a ttitu d e toward life its e lf is p o sitiv e ,
as was the case in the tw elfth century, e sp ec ially in
southern France, the p resen tatio n of women in lite ra tu re
is correspondingly p o sitiv e. The reverse is also , of
course, tru e. When the a ttitu d e toward the physical
world is negative, as we can see esp ec ially in the th irte e n th
and fourteenth c en tu ries, the p resen tatio n of women in
lite ra tu re is correspondingly negative.
I t is im portant to c la rify a t the o u tset th a t th is
d iss e rta tio n is not a h is to ric a l, so cio lo g ical study of
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4
the a ttitu d e s toward women in the Middle Ages but is a
study of tie fem inine ch aracters in c e rta in works of
lite ra tu re in an attem pt to d iscern what sym bolic ro les
they are assigned. P a tris tic , G nostic, and K abbalistic
a ttitu d e s toward the fem inine dem onstrate the dualism in
m edieval concepts of the fem inine, a dualism sim ilar to
th a t which appears in troubadour and A rthurian lite ra tu re .
This d iss e rta tio n w ill not attem pt to trace h is to ric a l
transm ission of, for example, G nostic a ttitu d e s toward
the fem inine. R ather i t illu s tr a te s d iffe re n t moments
of p a rtic u la r experiences of the p o la riz a tio n of the
fem inine w ithin m edieval c u ltu re , a p o la riz a tio n which
occurs in m edieval C h ristian , G nostic, and lite ra ry concepts
of the fem inine, quite c h a ra c te ris tic of a d u a lis tic age.
Female ch ara c te rs, as Joan F errante points out in
Woman as Image in M edieval L ite ra tu re .^ are not portrayed
as re a l people but are symbols, aspects of philosophical
and psychological problems th a t tro u b le the male world.
But Ms. F errante ignores the fa c t th a t the most complex
problem for m edieval man was whether the phy sical world
is good or e v il. His stance toward th a t question determ ined
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