Le Jeu de la Feuillée et la dissonance du sujet

Abstract

The Jeu de la Feuillee (Adam de la Halle, 1276) is based upon a dramatic configuration articulated on a plural dissonance, polyphonic and digressive, to a certain extent lacking in cohesion but nevertheless endowed with coherence inasmuch as this articulation becomes a metaphor for the action of the character on the stage. An action which is static: that of a self divided due to the tedium of its daily life, which ends up losing itself in the midst of a contradictory multiplicity. This play of voices is moreover enriched by the presence of a comic quality which, if indeed it attenuates the tragic dimension of the conflict, on the other hand contributes to reducing the absolute nature of the values which configure Adam’s universe and which might thus permit him to resolve his internal tension. The character therefore remains confronted with himself and with his space, in what we might call an interior estrangement, which is manifest in characteristics such as heterotopy, vagrancy, sterility and even untruth fed upon a project which is never realized. All these features converge upon the character, who in some way announces the modern hero and his crisis.