Cil qui l'escrit: Narrative Authority and Intervention in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain

Abstract

Cil qui l'escrist: Narrative Authority and Intervention in Chretien de Troyes's Yvain Marcella Munson Is poetic discourse always the passive discourse within a cultural framework? —Eugene Vance The twelfth century brought with it revolution in a number of areas. Chief among these were the realm of subjectivity and the creation of the individual. Among the texts which deal with the issue of nascent subjectivity is the Yvain, where narrative subjectiv­ ity finds new expression. I propose that it is through certain narratorial insertions and disruptions, including the traditional narrative loci of prologue and epilogue, that the question of subjec­ tivity is raised and examined by Chretien. Although the entire text can be said to be the intervention of the narrator (insofar as it is entirely his creation), specific types of narrative intervention can be analyzed to examine the question of how nascent subjectivity is represented in this twelfth century work. The conscious use of certain structural framing devices bears the narrator's opinion and highlights ambiguities which Chretien then attempts to preserve at the end of his work. /. Narrative Intervention and the Pleasure of Narration The Yvain is a text which celebrates the creation and telling of narrative. From the opening pages where Calogrenant relates the story of his previous avanture, to the furtive joining of the group by Guenievre in order to hear a story being told, to Guenievre's retelling of Calogrenant's story for the benefit of King Arthur— discourteous enough to leave his own feast—, to Yvain's summa­ rizing of his own subsequent trip to Esclados's fountain upon the arrival of King Arthur, characters are constantly (re)telling stories. Given the importance of the act of narration as constructed by the text itself, one can interpolate its importance to the community in which the Yvain was composed. In this sense, the Yvain is ;