Body and Identity in Le Chevalier de la Charette

Abstract

This article applies Paul Schilder’s model of body image to the figure of Lancelot, the hero of Le Chevalier de la Charette. Lancelot’s use of the traditional foundations of knightly body image, horse and armor, reveals that he does not view these as extensions of his physical self. Moreover, he suffers a number of wounds, notably his pierced flans, the shoulder wound inflicted by the amorous damsel’s man-at-arms, his bruised and crushed throat caused by his attempted suicide and the damaged fingers which result from his prying open the bars over the queen’s window, that fall outside the meaning usually ascribed to male mutilation in courtly romance. I attribute the manner in which the Charette constructs Lancelot’s body to the cultural milieu in which the text was produced, specifically to the differing definitions of masculinity held by clerics and nobles of twelfth-century Troyes.