English 65B/165B: Arthurian Literature

I. Who is this author?

1. All that is known is from the few autobiographical remarks he makes in his works in the prologue, esp. in Lancelot.. In Cliges he lists his bibliography.

2. Like Marie de France, he is a highly inventive author working within the Arthurian tradition, an author with a personal voice, who enters into his narrative.

3. He is an author who tests the ideology of his civilization: feudalism, courtly behavior and the medieval Christian canopy, the relationship and conflict of the two; the varieties of erotic love; the ethics of his characters; nature versus nurture; nature vs. art (e.g., the natural beauty of Enide’s body within her simple, worn frock, and then in her sumptuous garments).

Like Marie, he tests ideals, the psychology of love, and views his characters from various standpoints in various situations.

II. Chrétien’s Five Romances.

1. Each one is a sculpted gem, each a special story; each reveals new techniques and artistry; each is related to the others.

2. As Geoffrey of Monmouth’s dynastic chronicle is the source for the career and exploits of Arthur and Merlin, these romances are the font and source of nearly all ensuing medieval Arthurian romances about individual knights and ladies, especially those of the French cycle that furnishes Malory with his material

3. More than that, they form a symphonic unity, "une molt bele conjointure" (Erec, intro.), assembled from various episodes and interrelated to the central theme.

• Each part complements but contrasts with the other.
• Chrétien employs both twofold (cf. Marie de France’s Launfal) and threefold ("triptych’) structure, the latter forming an envelope pattern. Chrétien intertextualizes the five tales. He explores contrasting themes: e.g., Erec, the hero gone slack, vs. Yvain, the husband gone neglectful.
• We see a development of narrative techniques: Erec straight and lineal, with containing envelope in central section; Yvain, interrupted with seemingly unrelated episode, and resumption. Increasing daring in intertwining of plots. Not just, as in Erec, "meanwhile, back at the ranch" (p. 53: "Now we must speak again of Erec, who was still on the field..."), but increasingly, as in Yvain, plots within plots, stories within stories (Yvain promises to return to rescue Lunete but forced to defend and free maidens in the sweatshop).
• Dialogue, rhetorical questions, humorous asides, ironic remarks.
• Intriguing mixture of simplicity and sophistication, candor and concealment, surface shine and allegorical depth, candor and mystery.

III. Eric and Enide

Tripartite Narrative:

Part I: lines 1-1808, "li premiers vers"( "the first movement’)

Part II: lines 1809-5320, the central action and main plot

Part III: lines 5321-6912, coda, The Joy of the Court episode, finale.