« C’est vraie et bonne amour que de pere et de mere ». La peinture des relations familiales dans Les Narbonnais et dans leur mise en prose

• Authors: Dorota Pudo
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

The author analyses the picture of family relationships in the 13th-century epics belonging to the cycle of William of Orange (Narbonnais), comparing it to the one presented in corresponding fragments of the 15th-century prose adaptation of this cycle, and alluding to the real, historical functioning of medieval families. At the level of mutual communication between the members of Narbonne family, some attenuation of the expression of anger can be noticed, by means of eliminating the invectives and other irrespectful forms. The same tendency appears in presenting other types of Narbonne family’s behaviour: in the adaptation, they are deprived of the epic vehemence and brutality (Aymeri doesn’t hit his wife, and his son doesn’t threaten him with his sword). In both versions, the family is strongly paternalistic, and the count dominates his wife as well as his sons. Nevertheless, whereas the epic song is concerned mainly by the differences between the maternal and paternal vision of their sons’ education, the adaptation focuses on the generation conflict. Finally, one can notice a change in the place of the family in the system of values: in the song, the social values are more important (position, wellness, welfare of the lineage as a whole), whereas the prose author seems to value more the relationships between family members defined as unique, irreplaceable creatures.

Keywords

PL

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Romanica Cracoviensia
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2009

online

2009-10-06

Contributors

author

Dorota Pudo