Description
Book SynopsisTexts centred on the mother of Jesus abound in religious traditions the world over, but thirteenth-century Old French lyric stands apart, both because of the enormous size of the Marian cult in thirteenth-century France and the lack of critical attention the genre has garnered from scholars.
As hybrid texts, Old French Marian songs combine motifs from several genres and registers to articulate a devotional message. In this comprehensive and illuminating study, Daniel E. O’Sullivan examines the movement between secular and religious traditions in medieval culture that Old French religious song embodies. He demonstrates that Marian lyric was far more than a simple, mindless imitation of secular love song. On the contrary, Marian lyric participated in a dynamic interplay with the secular tradition that different composers shaped and reshaped in light of particular doctrinal and aesthetic concerns. It is a corpus that reveals itself to be far more malleable and supple than past
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction: Secular and Religious in Medieval Culture Chapter 1: Gautier de Coinci's Marian Poetics of Familiar Strangeness The Human and Divine in Harmony 'Amours, qui bien set enchanter' (I Ch 3/RS 851) 'Roÿne celestre' (I Ch 5/RS 956, 1903) 'D'une amour quoie et serie' (II Ch 5/RS 1212) Chapter 2: Thibaut de Champagne, Genre, and the Medieval Taste for Hybrids Thibaut in the Line of Gautier Thibaut's Hybridized Marian Songs 'Commencerai a fere un lai': Genre and Aesthetic Play Chapter 3: Voicing Marian Devotion in Women's Devotional Song Songs in the Voice of Everywoman Religious Women Voicing Marian Devotion Mary's Voice: 'Lasse, que devendrai gié' Chapter 4: Jacques de Cambrai, Distinctive Traditionalism, and Kaleidoscopic Contrafacta Choices of Motif, Theme, and Model: The Case for Distinctive Traditionalism Towards a Generative Model of Kaleidoscopic Contrafacture Traditionalism, Innovation, and ';Retrowange novelle' The Future of Old French Marian Song Chapter 5: Rutebeuf: Beyond the World of Marian Song Rutebeuf's Polemical Marian Poetry Marian Devotion Dramatized When Mary Intercedes: 'Un dist de Nostre Dame' Conclusion: Contrafacture and Cultural Exchange Appendix of textual and musical editions of songs and poems Notes Bibliography Index
