Medieval Occitan Poetry: Troubadours and Ausiàs March
Troubadour Genres and Themes
Song: Gender loving. His stanzas or verses (5-7) follow the process of falling in love and the faithfulness of the troubadour to the lady. Senhal is a keyword that conceals the name of the lady.
Ballad and Dance: The January theme of love being able to dance. They differ from the song by the presence of a refranh (refrain) that was repeated while singing the chorus, except that she sang solo.
Alba: A composition that focuses on a particular moment of the experience of love: the farewell of lovers at dawn after spending a night together. There are also religious subjects.
Pastorela: A composition of loving matter in the form of a dialogue between a knight and a shepherdess in a rural area.
Partimen and Tense: Two genres in which troubadours discuss a topic of love, literature, morality, etc.
Reason: Explanations of why the poem is written.
Koiré: Taking a language as a model.
Closed Finding: Characterized by secrecy in the sense given to words.
Angelical Women: Dolce Stil Novo: a lady being much more idealized and angelic.
Lives: Biographies of the bards.
Other authors wrote poetry: texts that have very elaborate poetry because it expresses the feelings of the author. Poetry written in Occitan, like that of authors such as Andreu Febrer and Gilabert de Pròixita, represents a return to classic troubadours and careful thematic and formal development. The compositions of these poets represent the maturity of a poetic tradition of Occitan origin and are considered by the Catalano-Aragonese crown itself as a cultural heritage.
Troubadour Themes: Signals, shyness before the tragedy of the poet, the pride of feeling like the best lover but nobody is worthy of him, crying, loss of hope to be requited, pain and desire for liberating death, the coexistence of pain and love, and love as a prison.
Ausiàs March
Ausiàs March uses poetry as a means of confession. The theme of death is considered a remedy for his desire, and love as redemption from the sin of carnal love. All his work revolves around love and the loving fact that separates him from tradition, not as a singer but as a philosopher. In his conception of love, we can identify:
- Fine Love: Dominated by entertainment.
- Mad Love: Dominated by the body.
- God’s Love: Religious love.
Ausiàs March has gone down in history as the poet who aspires to pure, spiritual love but falls into the temptations of the flesh. He presents a real flesh-and-blood woman with flaws and virtues, far from the stereotypes of courtly love.
Stylistic Features of Ausiàs March
- Many personal metaphors: navigation, winds, sea, etc.
- Comparative parallels between a personal situation and a real or fictitious example.
- Constant presence of objects of everyday life.
- Medieval and feudal landscape.
Jordi de Sant Jordi
Jordi de Sant Jordi was a courtly poet with great originality in recycling old themes and forms, as different from a combinatorial tradition.
Birth of the Romance Languages
Spoken Romance languages are consolidated in the eighth century. The first texts written in the twelfth century are the Book of Judges (a translation of a book of Visigoth laws) and the Homilies of Organyà (comments on a sermon). Latin is reserved for poetry, administration, and the church.
Guilhem de Berguedà
Guilhem de Berguedà, an elegant writer of love songs, was a feudal lord who often rebelled against those to whom he surrendered vassalage. He used poetry as a weapon to attack his enemies. He dedicated four sirventesos (a troubadour genre used to convey hatred against someone or to make fun of them) to Ponç de Mataplana, including “Cansoneta leu e plana.”