'A bona trobairis' Hoofse chansons van vrouwelijke troubadours in het twaalfde- en dertiende-eeuwse zuiden van Frankrijk
Auteurs
Hannie van Horen Verhoosel
Samenvatting
The trobairitz, usually high-ranking noble
women who were known as domna, are the
female poets of courtly lyric. They can be regarded
as the female counterparts of the troubadours,
the lyric singers and poets of courtly
love, a culture that flourished in the courts of
southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. Their work fits almost completely
into the socio-poetic code of the male troubadour
love lyric. The writing of a courtly
chanson caused a double-edged problem
for the trobairitz: in the first place they must
make their mark in a male dominated genre,
and they must also adapt the courtly code of
that genre, bound as it was by strict formality
and inflexible rules, to their own situation.
This meant they must replace the man as the
active and articulate lover, and manoeuvre
him into the passive role of the ‘beloved’. The
central question of this article deals with the
breaching of the traditional courtly code and
its consequences for the gender identity of
the trobairitz, for their chosen perspective
and the manner in which this breach acquired
shape in the formal vocabulary of courtly lyric.
