Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner , Chrétien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and Its Verse Continuations Chrétien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and Its Verse Continuations . Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Pp. vii+263.
2012; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 110; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/668513
ISSN1545-6951
Autores Tópico(s)Renaissance Literature and Culture
ResumoPrevious articleNext article FreeMatilda Tomaryn Bruckner, Chrétien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and Its Verse Continuations Chrétien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and Its Verse Continuations. Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Pp. vii+263.Daisy DeloguDaisy DeloguUniversity of Chicago Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe romances of Chrétien de Troyes are some of the best-known works of the Middle Ages, generative texts that have produced medieval prequels and sequels, adaptations, and translations, as well as modern texts, operas, and films, both comic and serious. Given the public’s enduring interest in the issues raised by Chrétien’s romances, as well as their bele conjointure, surprisingly little attention has been accorded to the verse continuations of what is arguably Chrétien’s greatest known work, the enigmatic and incomplete Roman de Perceval, ou le conte du Graal. This scholarly oversight has now been redressed by Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner’s insightful monograph.Bruckner first provides her readers with an overview of the works (work?) in question. Chrétien composed his Conte du Graal around 1181–91. The anonymous first continuation and the second continuation by Wauchier de Denain both date from the late twelfth century, while the third continuation by Manessier (ca. 1214–27) and the fourth continuation by Gerbert de Montreuil (ca. 1226–30) were written somewhat later and reflect the influence of the prose Vulgate cycle, notably the Queste del Saint Graal. The manuscript evidence shows that most medieval readers would not have encountered the Conte du Graal on its own but rather in combination with one or more of its continuations. In order to conceptualize how medieval texts might be continued or adapted, Bruckner defines what she calls “centripetal” and “centrifugal” textuality. On the one hand, centripetal textuality is exemplified by the prose Lancelot cycle, which incorporates and subsumes Chrétien’s texts and which is itself incorporated into the larger Vulgate cycle. Centrifugal textuality, on the other hand, is illustrated by the Perceval verse continuations, which cite and rely on Chrétien’s text as an authorizing point of departure. This centrifugal force is already present within Chrétien’s romance, with its “unexpected doubling of heroes…puzzles, parallels, and contradictions” (17). Bruckner identifies an “and/both” logic that she sees as operative within, and essential to, Chrétien’s text and its continuations. This and/both logic invites the engagement of the public in processes of remembering, comparing, and evaluating, allowing them, like the romance’s heroes, to pose questions and to proffer solutions.In chapter 1, “Authorial Relays,” Bruckner analyses medieval conceptions of authorship, which she sees as an example of practice preceding definition. She observes that medieval writing practices take place along a continuum that includes scribes, compilers, editors, continuators, translators, and commentators and that identifying an authorial figure is really a modern concern rather than a medieval one. With respect to the continuations, she argues that on some level Chrétien may be thought of as the author of the entire edifice, inasmuch as his authority remains in play throughout the continuations, which explicitly identify Chrétien’s text as their point of origin. Using Michel Stanesco’s theory of the texte primitif, the idea that there is always a shared (imaginary?) source that authorizes all literary undertakings, Bruckner argues that Chrétien’s text itself serves as the texte primitif for its continuators, both shaping and authorizing them and providing continuity. Bruckner performs a close reading of Chrétien’s prologue that focuses on how Chrétien thematizes questions of authorship, interpretation, and the generative capacities of words. The biblical references in his prologue, sometimes misquoted or misattributed, invite readers to return to the original, just as the continuators’ naming or citing of Chrétien in their texts encourages a return to a previous textual moment. In this way Chrétien establishes a back-and-forth model of comparison and interpretation that both parallels and supplements the linear acts of reading and writing. Over the course of the verse continuations the reader is constantly taken back—back to Chrétien’s text, back to the Grail castle, back to recurring and vexatious problems of violence or of sexuality—just as he or she is propelled forward through accumulated continuations that appear to avoid as much as they seek resolution.Chapters 2 and 3 examine issues related to love, sexuality, and violence. Both are closely text based and might be difficult to follow for readers not familiar with the texts in question. However, the breakdown of episodes contained in appendix 1 provides a useful reference. In chapter 2 Bruckner focuses on the redoubling of heroes and the ways Perceval and Gauvain’s experiences complement, gloss, and reinflect one another. Through an analysis of their serial encounters with a set of “tent maidens,” Bruckner is able to elucidate how Perceval and Gauvain, though apparently dissimilar, each embody an ambiguous heroism capable both of perpetrating violence and of combating evildoers. Chapter 3 looks at the figure of the mother, who is accorded an unusual prominence in the Graal and in the first continuation. Perceval’s mother provides his first education, one that strips knights and chivalry of their idealized qualities and focuses on the violence inherent in knighthood. In spite of her premature death, Perceval’s mother remains central to his development as a knight and as a person. The figure of the mother furnishes a focal point for an interrogation of the respective roles of nature and nurture in the formation of an individual, the processes of trial and error through which understanding can be gradually achieved, and the importance of love—be it maternal, erotic, or spiritual—to any attempt to restore social harmony.The fourth chapter, “Violent Swords and Utopian Plowshares,” further examines the place of violence within a chivalric ideal and explores the possibility of restoration. Bruckner uses the figure of Isaiah, who foretold both violence and destruction, and also the prospect of (re)creating a just society, to shed light on the ways in which the Graal and its continuations confront the problem of human violence. Because change is constant, renewal remains possible. Through techniques of defamiliarization, categorical confusion between weapons and tools, courtly and noncourtly weapons, and heroes and villains or perpetrators, Chrétien and his continuators ask their publics to (re)examine the presence of violence within a chivalric ideal and to consider how human society may move closer to peace. Bruckner shows that the prose Vulgate cycle and the verse continuations respond differently to the cues present in Chrétien’s originating text. The former provides a vision of apocalyptic destruction of Arthurian society but posits the opportunity for salvation on an individual level, while the latter remains optimistic about the capacity of individuals to learn and of society as a whole to renew itself. Through the optic of Manessier’s continuation, Bruckner shows how the Graal and its continuations display their ambivalence toward “the need for, as well as the abuse of, knightly prowess, the pursuit of chivalric valor, and the conquest of honor” (184).The final chapter foregrounds incompleteness, or the potential always to add more, as a driving narrative force. Here Bruckner examines instances of repetition with difference to show how layers of meaning gradually accrete, refracting and nuancing what has come before, permitting an ever more complex understanding of a character, situation, or problem. Bruckner argues that the compositional techniques of the verse continuations are the same as those at work in the Bible. The result is “both unitary and miscellaneous, diverse yet coherent, authorized but multiple in authorship” (193–94). Focusing on Gerbert’s continuation and on the characters’ repeated visits to the Grail castle, Bruckner shows how accumulation functions as amplificatio and also as a gloss or interpretation of what has come before. The openness of the middle to new episodes and adventures (Bruckner uses the metaphor of the sandwich, to which more can be added without making the result any less a sandwich) invites the work’s public to focus on process, on the wanderings and adventures that comprise the text, rather than on closure, thus creating the possibility for continual continuation, a scenario in which our own interpretive forays into the Grail castle have their part to play.Bruckner’s work provides a thought-provoking analysis of a rich but little-known set of texts and in the process helps to illuminate the nature of medieval authorship and the work of art. Perhaps more important, Bruckner reminds her readers of the need to pursue solutions—however temporary, approximate, or local—to the problems that confront us. She observes that the questions asked of the Grail castle objects—lance and grail—are not “what” but “how” and that these questions emblematize the optimal attitude of the reader both toward the textual edifice created by Chrétien and his continuators and toward our shared human condition. How are individuals to be integrated into the fabric of society? How can a society in which violence is an integral aspect of its members afford protection to the weak and justice for all? While the answers may not be forthcoming, the questions must be asked. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 110, Number 3February 2013 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/668513 Views: 157Total views on this site © 2013 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.
Referência(s)