Violent Passions: Managing Love in the Old French Verse Romance (Studies in Arthurian and Courtly Cultures)

This Book Re-evaluates The Perception Of Courtly Love In Old French Verse. Adams Traces How These Verses Explore The Emotional Trials Of Amour And Propose Coping Methods For The Lovelorn. The Problem Of Love -- The Mad Lovers Of The Ovidian Lais -- Marriage And Amor -- The Roman D'eneas And The Erotics Of Empire Building -- Making Love In Béroul And Thomas's Tristan -- The Magister Amoris And His Willful Lovers: Cligés And The Chevalier De La Charrete. Tracy Adams. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [287]-306) And Index. Why does modern scholarship regard an impulse described as relentless, physically painful, and disorienting as a beautiful and refined emotion? Tracy Adams argues that "courtly" love in the Old French verse romance represented not an ideal for its medieval public, but a disorder. Romances should not be viewed as transmitters of a new and fashionable love ideology but as interventions in the widespread medieval debates carried on by philosophers, theologians, and physicians over the nature of love. Modern criticism on women in the romance assumes that the genre's love episodes idealize women to their detriment. Drawing on modern theories of the emotions, however, Adams argues that the romances were never meant to idealize women but rather to teach audiences to train their disruptive and dangerous impulses into positive and powerful bonds capable of holding marriages together to in response to changing marriage practices during the twelfth century. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 List of Abbreviations......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 1 The Problem of Love......Page 24 2 The Mad Lovers of the Ovidian Lais......Page 50 3 Marriage and Amor......Page 88 4 The Roman d’Eneas and the Erotics of Empire Building......Page 120 5 “Making Love” in Béroul and Thomas’s Tristans......Page 158 6 The Magister Amoris and his Willful Lovers: Cligés and the Chevalier de la Charrete......Page 200 Conclusion......Page 250 Notes......Page 258 Bibliography......Page 300 C......Page 320 G......Page 321 M......Page 322 S......Page 323 Z......Page 324 Annotation This book re-evaluates the perception of "courtly love" in Old French verse. Adams traces how these verses explore the emotional trials of amournbsp;and propose coping methods for the lovelorn