Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature (review)

Abstract

REVIEW Gaunt, Simon. Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature. Cambridge StudiesinFrench, 53. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress. 1995. Pp. ? + 368. Simon Gaunt opens his introduction withthree dictionarydefinitionsthat suggest by similaritythat gender, genre, and genusare overlapping concepts. More definitions—for ideologyand sex/gender system— follow inquick succession to reveal further the important playofdifference and to anchor the argument Gaunt sustains and detailsthrough the five chapters ofhis book: "that genres in medieval French and Occitan literature inscribe competing ideologies, that theconstructionofgender is a crucialelement in any ideology, and that the distinctive ideologies of medieval genresarepredicated inpart at least upondistinct constructions ofgender" (1). These opening remarkstypifythe care, clarity, and cleverness withwhichGaunt presents hisanalyses so that readers, whether students or specialists in avarietyofdisciplines, mayengage with the issues and textspresented. They also pinpoint the specific character ofGaunt's approach: however eclectic the critical tools employed, the political and feminist implications ofhisanalysisremainat the forefront. He acknowledgesthe specificityofhispositionasamale feminist andtakesadvantage ofit to focus on the constructionofthe masculine as well as the feminine, without ignoring their interaction in literary representation. Each chapter analyzes adifferent genre—chanson degeste, romance , the canso, hagiography, thefabliaux—and canbe read asa separate , coherent unit. But Gaunt also insists onthe interplaybetween genres that helpsdefine them in a givenhistorical period in termsofboth formal and semanticelements. He thus sets upadialogue among the chapters— and often includes intergeneric analyses withinthem—whichculminates in the final chapter on thefabliaux. In Gaunt's view, the kind ofmobility typical ofthe entirefabliau world comes as close to theorizing the construction ofgenderand its fluidityinOld Frenchand Occitan literature as 83 REVIEW the period's lackofliterarytheoryallows. Thus 'mterpreted,fabliauxasa genre—like key worksconsidered earlier, including Guillaume de Dole and the songs ofthe trobairitz—seem to offer confirmation, from witnesses inthe medieval period itself, to validate the book'soverall argument . This effort to discern a possible correspondence between modern interpretationandmedieval literaryplayrepresentsan important strategy inGaunt's criticalproject. Inthe closing sentence ofthe conclusion, he suggests that medieval texts mayteach us about thepotential for oppressive as well as liberating uses ofgender. Postmodern awareness of contingency, however, heightensGaunt'sperception not onlyofthe way scholars may revealmore oftheir ownortheir period's preoccupations thanthemedievaltext's, butalsothe degreeto whichchangingcontexts— literary, ideological, cultural, historical, etc.—maychangeour interpretations , generatingdifferentandoftenconflictingviews,evenamong feminist critics. Howthento convincereadersthat ourinterpretationsarevalid, do justice to the medieval context, ordemonstratethe inadequacy ofsomeone else's reading? Thus triangulated, Gaunt's study maintains alively dialogue with medieval textsaswellaswith contemporarymedievalists. The chapteron the canso, for example, takes recent works by Jean-Charles Huchet, Rouben Cholakian, and Sarah Kayasstartingpoints for disagreement or refinement: Gauntmoves frompoliticized criticismàlaKöhlerto issuesof gender, inorderto problematizepsychoanalytic claims foruniversalmodels ofthe psyche and the family. By concentrating on a few 12* century troubadours (especiallyBernart de Ventadorn), Gaunt explores the dialectic between romanceand lyric asalternate discoursesavailable to contemporaryauthorsand publics. (Inthisrespect, it might have been useful to situate the canso morefullywithinthe dialectic oflyric genresaswell.) The last section on "women'svoices" asks howtrobairitzrespond to the paradigms ofthe male-authored canso: willthey react criticiallyor internalize male representationsoftheir gender?InGaunt'sview, contemporary effortsto denythe presenceofwomentroubadours withinthe troubadourrepertoire —inwhichheincludes PierreBee's"textualité feminine" 84 REVIEW aswellasHuchet's "fiction littéraire"—parallel themarginalizationoftheir voices intheprocessoftransmission. By showing howtrobairitz identify and undercut male poets' conventions. Gaunt allows their songsto express a female subjectivity—even ifit must be represented as the inexpressible within the constraits ofthe canso. Thisdiscussion,aswellastheearliersectionsonthemale-authored canso, inevitably raises the issue ofhow we are to read these artfully constructed poetic objects with their equally constructed persona? in relation to the real people (known or unknown) who composed and consumedthem. IfGaunt'sapproachmakeshimparticularlysensitiveto the gaps getween the fantasized domna and real women as a source of misogynyinthetroubadours' cansos, hisdiscussionsoccasionallygloss oversimilarpossibilitiesforslippagebetweenparticularmenandtheimages theyplay withand against inpoetry. In TroubadoursandIrony, Gaunt calledpersuasivelyformorenuanceandflexibilityinourunderstandingof theplayfulnessoftroubadourlyric,itscapacityforescapingfixedcategoriesthroughtheopen -endedthrustofmultipleironies. Thatcriticalopennesstomaximizedpossibilitiesseemstoshrinkinthischapteronthecanso . Iflinguisticcompetitionamongmenandreinforcementoftheirhomosocial bond are usefully postulated as characteristic ofthese songs, does that necessarilyleadtodefiningthecansoasexcludingdialoguewiththelady orexcludingwomenfromitspublic?Do wenot thensuppressthemany callsforher/theirreceptionandresponsebyinterpretingthemaway(much liketheargumentsofHuchetalreadyproblematizedbyGaunt)?Do such readings reduce the play ofparadox in these songs which speak by not speaking (to the lady), make public that which cannot be expressed publicly,involvemenandwomen,realandconstructed,insideandoutside thepoems?The valueofGaunt'sbook is precisely located in itsgift for raisingsuchquestions. Whetherweagreeornotwithagiveninterpretation, choiceofcontext,orexample, hisargument fortheimportanceofrelating theissuesofgenderandgenreinmedievalFrenchliteratureiscertainlynot inquestion. MatildaTomarynBruckner Boston College 85 REVIEW WORKSCITED Bec, Pierre. "'Trobairitz' et chansons de femme—Contribution à la connaissance du lyrisme féminin au moyen âge...