Le roman occitan médiéval (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS Jean-Charles Huchet Le roman occitan médiéval. Littératures modernes. Paris: Presses UniversitairesdeFrance, 1991. 148FF. Jean-Charles Huchet is one of the few scholars of Occitan todayworkingseriouslyonthenarrative corpus. Inadditiontothe book under review and numerous other works on medieval French literature, he has also published editions ofFlamenca and Nouvelles occitanes du Moyen Age; this work is all in the orbit of Huchet's 1990 Paris thèse d'état, Dupoème au roman. Genèse et fortune du roman occitan médiéval. This book is to be welcomed asasignofrenewedinterestinaneglectedareaofOccitanstudies, although problems of methodology and of defining the corpus cause me to have certain reservations. It iswell known that Huchet is a practitioner ofaparticular type of psychoanalytical approach to literature, deriving from Freud and Lacan, seasonedwith a dash ofgender studies. There is little point inharping onwhat could be perceived as something ofaself-imposed methodologicalstraitjacket; sufficeittosaythat whetherone agreeswith the method ornot, Huchet usesitwell. It is also true that not all ofthe conclusions in this book are directly derivedfromthemethodology, andinthat respect,itisperhapsof less importance. A more serious issue in my opinion is that of defining the corpus of "le roman occitan." Stricto sensu (if that makes any senseat allinthe context ofgenre definition), most scholarswould probably agree that the Occitan romance corpus consists only of Jaufre, Flamenca, Blondinde Cornualha, andGuilhemdelaBarra. Ifwe are to apply the model ofthe Northern French Gattungssystem , the inclusion of anything else in the corpus is fraught with difficulty. The proseBarlaam etJosaphatis more ofhagiographical text, and its Oitanic counterpart has never to my knowledge been considered a romance; the so-called Roman d'Arles is a mixtureofpiousandepicmaterial; theconfusingtitlesgiventothe Roman de Notre Dame de la Grasse (or Philomena) obscure the fact that it is basically related to the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle; mostoftheothernarratives,withthe exception ofthechansonsde geste, are types of novas, bearing relationships to such genres as the fabliau, the allegorical dit, and in the Occitan context, of course, the lyric. Huchet's attempt in Chapter Two (19-38) to expand the corpus ofOccitanromance to include all ofthe above is ingenious, being based on an examination of the "conscience Reviews133 générique occitane," but ultimately unsuccessful. In one sense, the title ofthe book itselfis misleading, for Huchet admits at the end of this second chapter that it is more accurate to speak of "mouvance romanesque" (38), and that romance narrative failed to take hold in Occitania. Chapter Three, "La dame et le père" (39-72), advances a number of reasons for the dearth of romance in Occitan, all relatedtothe changingsocial statusofmenandwomeninOccitan socialunits atvariousperiodsin theMiddleAges; the supplanting oiftn'amor by religion and the cult of the Virgin is also seen as unpropitioustothedevelopmentofawoman-centeredgenresuch as romance. Thereal"culprit,"ofcourse,isthelyric. Thevidas,razos, and novas are, to some extent, amplifications of lyric themes and devices, and this is the basic subject ofChapter Four, "Du poétique au romanesque" (73-105). According to Huchet, the vidas and razosshowadesiretobreakwiththe universalityofthesubjectand individualize the "je" oflyric poetry, and the novas are narrative amplifications ofvariouspotentialitiesofthegrandchantcourtois. InChapterFive, "Leromanetla/m'amor"(107-40), Huchetgives a brief overview of the "erotique" of the courtly lyric which he proceeds to compare with that of the romance. In essence, the romance, and in particularJaufre and Flamenca, articulates the problematics of the "fach" implicit in the lyric, of which it thus offers a critical reading. Occitanromance provides, in Huchet'swords, "une histoire littéraire romancée" (142) and this idea isworked out in Chapter Six, "Le roman comme théorie" (141-59): romance provides a possible key to unlocking the lyric. Again, Jaufre andFlamenca are central tothe argument, but I am leftuneasybythe discussion of the vidas and razos in the same context as if they were of the same kind. Certainly, theythrow light on the problem, but it is a differentkind oflight. From "Leroman comme théorie," Huchet proceeds in Chapter Seven "Vers une théorie du roman" (16184 ). TherelationbetweenlyricandromanceinOccitanliterature is hermetic and circular. As romance offers a reflection on the nature oftrobar, so thetrobarallows the romance to defineits own function as commentary on lyric. 134Reviews Theeighthandfinalchapter, "Romansd'ocetromansd'oïl" (185-206) is oneofthemostsuccessfulandinterestinginthebook. Inmanyways,itarticulateswhathaslongbeenimpliedbyscholars, namelythattheOccitanresponsetoOftanicromance,particularly inJaufreandBlondindeCornualha (whichlaterHuchetpersistsin callingaromanarthurien despite the absence ofArthurian traits), constitutes resistance ("des machines de...