Troubadours and IronyFrom Petrarch and Dante to Pound and Eliot, the influence of the troubadours on European poetry has been profound. They have rightly stimulated a vast amount of critical writing, but the majority of modern critics see the troubadour tradition as a corpus of earnestly serious and confessional love poetry, with little or no humour. Troubadours and Irony re-examines the work of five early troubadours, namely Marcabru, Bernart Marti, Peire d'Alvernha, Raimbaut d'Aurenga and Giraut de Borneil, to argue that the courtly poetry of southern France in the twelfth century was permeated with irony and that many troubadour songs were playful, laced with humorous sexual innuendo and far from serious; attention is also drawn to the large corpus of texts that are not love poems, but comic or satirical songs. |
Contents
Marcabru | 39 |
Bernart Marti | 80 |
Peire dAlvernha | 97 |
Raimbaut dAurenga | 121 |
Giraut de Borneil | 145 |
Conclusion | 183 |
Notes | 203 |
219 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alegret Alfonso allegoria Amar ambiguity amor antiphrasis appear argues Arnaut Daniel audience Beggiato Bel m'es Bernart de Ventadorn Bernart Marti boasting Bonafos c'om Cansos Cercamon chan clearly Companho Compare Marcabru composed context conventions cortes Cortesamen criticism cuidar d'amor edition example false praise Farai un vers fin'amor Giraut de Borneil gran Guilhem Herennium Hoepffner humour implies indicate intended meaning interpretation intertextual ironic sexual metaphors Jaufre Rudel Jaufre's joglar joven lady literal meaning love poetry m'en Marcabru Marcabru's poetry medieval mezura mocking Mölk moralizing obscene Occitan parody passim Paterson Pattison Peire d'Alvernha Peire's poem poet pretz puesc qu'es qu'ieu quan Quintilian Raimbaut d'Aurenga reading refer rhetorical Riquer Roncaglia senhal Sharman signal to irony significatio sing song stanza style suggests tenso tone Topsfield totz translates Trobar clus trobar leu trope troubadour trovadores undermines verb words