Difference Transformed: Love and Adventure in Middle English Breton Lays

• Main Authors: Shih-Ting Hsu, 許詩停
• Other Authors: Francis, K. H. So
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10828330521679887379

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 88 === Abstract The Breton lay, a genre claiming to enjoy popularity in Medieval England, often arouses critics?debate on its legitimacy of forming a distinct genre. By alluding to the remote literary form, the Anglo-Norman and Middle English author create their own Breton lays according to their social and historical context. Donovan asserts conclusively that the Breton lays are all concerned with the idea of �adventure.? However, their predecessor, Marie de France�s Lais, is considered to be stories of �courtly love.? Therefore, the meaning of �love?and �adventure?should be clarified, and the genre�s emphases of love and adventure are worth further investigation to see how they change according to the historical and cultural context. My thesis is a study of the Breton lay on the themes of love and adventure of Marie de France�s Lais and the Middle English Breton lays since the two themes are the major topics of the genre. Besides Introduction and Conclusion, my thesis is mainly divided into two parts�the first part discusses Marie de France and her Lais, and the second part concentrates on the Middle English Breton lay; each part contains two chapters. In Chapter One, I study Marie de France�s general prologue to her work. From investigations of Marie de France�s possible identity, her audience, and the historical context of her composition, I find that the Lais, as a �difference?under her purposeful choice, shows her feminine pursue. In Chapter Two, from the chart I set upon Marie de France�s twelve lais, I find that she presents mainly the triangular love relationships among her heroes and heroines, of which her feminine pursue is shown in her presentation of her heroines agonizing between the triangular relationships. To interpret her lays further, it is clear that she presents many dimensions of �love?in different approaches. Under her illustration, love should not be confined within the convention of �Courtly Love?but taken as the natural human emotion causing sometimes happy, sometimes tragic ending. In Chapter Three, the historical and cultural change from Anglo-Norman to a native Englishness is the focus. Such change influences the essence of Middle English Breton lays that they move away from Marie de France�s Lais and develop their own characteristics. In Chapter Four, I propose to divide the seven Middle English Breton lays into two groups according to their emphases of love and adventure. Using the chart I use upon Marie de France�s Lais to examine again the love relationship in them, I find that one group of Middle English Breton lays emphasizes on �love? being near to the French tradition, while the other group concentrate on �adventure,?both of the groups endow still another shift in the significance of love and adventure under England�s cultural and historical context. In the Middle English Breton lays, love always materialize into marriage, and adventure signifies the search of the hero/heroine�s self-identity. In the Conclusion, I generalize significant changes from Marie de France�s Lais to Middle English Breton lays. The founding concept of the changes is the shift from Anglo-Norman female ideology to an English consciousness. Thus the use of the �Breton lay?in relation to a Breton origin is actually not concrete but a camouflage of the author�s usage accordingly.