Le passé recomposé des lais bretons en moyen-anglais : Le Lay le Freine, Sir Orfeo, Sir Degaré, Sir Launfal et The Franklin’s Tale
The prologues opening several Middle English Breton lays display both proximity and distance with the Breton lai tradition. The most striking difference lies in the absence of an argument put forward in the prologues of the French poems, which justifies their undertaking – the necessity to perpetuat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institut du Monde Anglophone
2014-04-01
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| Series: | Etudes Epistémè |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/207 |
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| Summary: | The prologues opening several Middle English Breton lays display both proximity and distance with the Breton lai tradition. The most striking difference lies in the absence of an argument put forward in the prologues of the French poems, which justifies their undertaking – the necessity to perpetuate the remembrance of marvellous adventures that belong to the Breton past and of its otherness. This article aims to demonstrate that the five Breton lays in consideration (Sir Orfeo, Lay Le Freine, Sir Degaré, Sir Launfal, The Franklin’s Tale), by exploring fidelity to the past and its applicability, are likewise structured by the issue of remembrance. However, far from offering self-confident assertions of the legitimacy and efficiency of the process, the English lays testify to an uncertain, even painful experience that has to take into account an elusive or unwanted past. This anxious and sometimes antagonistic link with the past constitutes the thematic backdrop of the five lays under scrutiny. The link is expressed in four of the five poems in terms of genealogical or family links, which encourages interpretation from a metadiscursive perspective. This paper suggests that the Middle English Breton lays explore and, through different approaches, try to decipher their belonging to the same category as their remote ancestor – the French Breton lais. |
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| ISSN: | 1634-0450 |