Woman as presence in the voice of the troubadour

Abstract

Woman within the troubadour system has the power to accept or reject the love of the troubadours and when she becomes herself a troubadour, she does not respond directly to the male poet's request for love, but initiates her own requests. In her poems, the woman troubadour gives precious testimony of the ways aristocratic woman was able to participate fully in the game and life of poetry. The male troubadour praises and glorifies the presence of the lady in society and all his songs refer specifically to women. On the other hand, the woman troubadour does not worship man, nor does she idealize the relationships she writes about. The only thing their poetry has in common is 'courtly love'. This convention profoundly influenced the poetics and outlook of Europe from the twelfth century to the present day. In this light, the scope of my dissertation is to analyze how, why, when and where, is woman present in the troubadour system. So a deep analysis is be put forth on how woman was portrayed by the male troubadours and obviously the women troubadours themselves. On the introduction I give a historical overview, relating several events from the Middle Ages, such as feudalism and the crusades, thus creating a historical I social context for the subsequent discussion of troubadours and their poetry. Chapter one is divided into two sections. The first section focuses specifically on the troubadours where I give a brief exposition on who were the troubadours. The second section analyzes woman's role and status before the great phenomenon that of courtly love took Western culture by storm. Chapter two consists of courtly love and how woman adapted to this new convention, while chapter three mainly discusses how woman was portrayed in the poems of the troubadours. Chapter four focuses specifically on woman as troubadour (trobairitz) and a few of her poems are discussed. The last chapter relates the decline of the troubadours and the influence that troubadour art had in other countries. In the conclusion, a final argument is presented, showing that in a courtly love society the exaltation of the lady in poetry is a break with both the classical and early Christian traditions where, woman was treated as an inferior subject.