Vernacular Song quotes

Question 1

‘Rich and complex oral tradition’
‘Belongs to the central tradition of trouvère song’ in ‘textual and melodic composition’

Answer 1

Parker (1979), St German chansonnier

Question 2

Troubadours- ‘the earliest and most significant exponents of… music and poetry in medieval Western vernacular culture’

Answer 2

Stevens (2001)

Question 3

19th century romanticised troubadours’ lives, but later on there is a more ‘careful’ and ‘realistic appraisal’

Answer 3

Stevens (2001)

Question 4

Fin’amors (troubadour)- not ‘exclusively literary’, an ‘influential cultural element in medieval society’

Answer 4

Stevens (2001)

Question 5

Gaston Paris (19th century) ‘courtly love’- ‘changing social and ecclesiastical structures of love and marriage’

Answer 5

Stevens (2001)

Question 6

Trobairitz- ‘exalted’ despite ‘context of female suppression’

Answer 6

Stevens (2001)

Question 7

Trobairitz- only 23-46 texts compared to 2600 from male authors

Answer 7

Stevens (2001)

Question 8

Trouvères ‘provide the earliest surviving view of the troubadours’

Answer 8

Stevens (2001)

Question 9

Trouvères ‘often discussed only as a footnote to the more exotic predecessors’

Answer 9

Stevens (2001)

Question 10

Troubadour and trouvère ‘their verse achieved life mainly through the performance of the singer’

Answer 10

Stevens (2001)

Question 11

Women as ‘domna’, ‘mainly…the necessary object of the poet-lover’s desire’, ‘passive and silent’

Answer 11

Sankovitch (1999)

Question 12

Domna as the poet’s “mirror”, as fin’amor ‘holds only nothingness’ for the other sex

Answer 12

Julia Kristeva in Sankovitch (1999)

Question 13

Only by 1170-1260 were women poets’ ‘imagination’ and ‘expression’ considered ‘dynamic’ for the first time

Answer 13

Sankovitch (1999)

Question 14

Trobairitz favour ‘psycho-poetic values’ (fidelity and emotivity) over ‘socio-poetic’ ones (moderation, generosity, reputation)

Answer 14

Bec in Sankovitch (1999)

Question 15

‘Mimicry’- when the woman takes on the role of the courtly man, recreating herself in the man’s view
This is because trobairitz literature revolves more around female society

Answer 15

Irigray in Sankovitch (1999)

Question 16

‘Interest’ in trobairitz ‘generally follows the rising and falling tides of feminism’

Answer 16

Bruckner (1995)

Question 17

Trobairitz studies received special attention in the 1980s because of Meg Bogin’s translation of 23 poem corpus, “The Women Troubadours”
The last edition of the trobairitz as a group was 1946

Answer 17

Bruckner (1995)

Question 18

Argues that all ladies are domnas, either ‘loved by troubadours’ or ‘loving in turn’

Answer 18

Bruckner (1995)

Question 19

Trobairitz are all described using the same adjectives, as they are all domnas, ‘noble, beautiful, charming, educated’

Answer 19

Bruckner (1995)

Question 20

Courtly love originated from the troubadour canso

Answer 20

Gaunt (1995)

Question 21

‘Modern criticism’ is ‘obsessed with origins’, blind spot neglecting how Northern French and Occitan lyric traditions are actually quite contemporary

Answer 21

Gaunt (1995)

Question 22

Bibliographie (1933) lists all the known troubadours
Important reference work as it contains an anthology of poems by 122 poets

Answer 22

Pillet and Carstens (1933)

Question 23

Analysis shows that the ‘rhetoric’ of the trouvères is ‘artificial and calculated’ but in a positive sense

Answer 23

Dragonetti (1960)