| dc.description.abstract | Tant ai fet mal: Reflections on Violence in the Old French Cycle of Guillaume d'Orange
Anthony Gerardo Contreras
Dissertation under the direction of Professor Lynn Ramey
This dissertation investigates the complex role of violence in the chansons de geste of medieval France. It places side by side six texts from the cycle of Guillaume d'Orange to demonstrate how violence affects the characters of the epic chansons de geste of medieval France. By choosing multiple texts across a single cycle, the analysis shows how the authors of the texts depicted the toll of violence across multiple points of Guillaume d’Orange’s life. In the first main chapter of the dissertation, I analyze specific instances of violence across three epics to determine what defines permissible violence within the epic and how this is often more complicated than it initially appears. In the second chapter, I combat the overly applied idea of Jean-Charles Payen’s “joyous genocide” to show how the Chanson de Guillaume depicts the dual nature of violence as both pleasurable and painful. In the third chapter, I analyze the Moniage Guillaume to demonstrate how Guillaume reflects upon past sins in his attempt to seek salvation in the eyes of God. In the fourth chapter, I discuss the meta-violence of continuations, specifically in the Enfances Guillaume, as it pertains to the attempt to rewrite previous events from other epics to reshape the reception of a cycle. This dissertation challenges the preconceived notions of violence within the chansons de geste by bringing together modern theories on violence and emotions to bring to light the nuanced views of violence present in the texts. By acknowledging these reflections on violence, the authors of these texts demonstrate to the reader that the Middle Ages was not a time of unrepentant violence and unending war, but, rather, a time that welcomed the questioning of violence. | |
