romance, medieval (12th–14th centuries) literary genre. Encyclopedia of World Writers, Beginnings To 20th Century

In 12th-century France, the term romanz referred
to a work written in the vernacular literature
rather than in Latin, which was the language used
by scholars, lawmakers, the religious, and the ruling
class. First used to indicate a poem that related
historical facts, the term romance soon came to
designate a new literary genre. This genre did not
come about spontaneously; rather, it found its beginnings
in ancient Greek, Arabic, and Celtic literatures.
For example, medieval society was familiar
with the triumph of love in CALLIMACHUS’s works as
well as Celtic stories, such as the romance of TRISTAN
AND ISEULT.Medieval romances were also influenced
by Arabic songs, brought into contact with
Western culture through the CRUSADES, and by the
political history of the province of Aquitaine in
present-day France.William of Poitou, Duke of
Aquitaine, who fought in the First Crusade, was
also the earliest recorded TROUBADOUR. His granddaughter,
Eleanor of Aquitaine, became Queen of
France and then Queen of England, carrying to
both courts a new tradition of love poetry that
evolved into a code of CHIVALRY and COURTLY LOVE.
From 1150 until the end of the 14th century, the
romance was the most popular secular genre in the
literature of England and France. Scholars later
tried to organize the immense proliferation and
colorful variety of texts by organizing them into
three main areas: the Matter of Britain, which involves
the adventures of King Arthur and his
knights; the Matter of Charlemagne, which includes
the stories of Roland; and the Matter of
Rome, which includes tales about Alexander the
Great and the fall of Troy. Arthur, Alexander, and
Roland all take their place among the favorite heroes
of medieval romances. Even those narratives
that are not related to these cycles share certain
characteristics with the most famous and influential
of the romance tales.
The first romance distinguishable as such may
be the SONG OF ROLAND, which was composed in the
latter half of the 11th century. Some scholars
maintain that the Song of Roland is still an example
of the older heroic poetry similar to the Anglo-
Saxon BEOWULF or the EPICs of ancient Greece and
Rome. In addition, the Romance of Thebes, The Romance
of Aeneas, and The Romance of Troy, written
between 1150 and 1165, all deal with the matter of
Rome, retelling the epic stories in romance form.
During these same years, Béroul wrote his Tristan
and CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES his Arthurian Romances,
which forever shaped the way these characters were
known and continue to be perceived. Later writers
also added to the treasury of stories, among them
MARIE DE FRANCE and Robert de Boron, whose verse
romances develop the story of the HOLY GRAIL and
add to the Arthurian romances.Around 1225, GUILLAUME
DE LORRIS began an elaborate allegorical
poem called The ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, which was
continued later by JEAN DE MEUN and which left an
enduring stamp on the romance genre and the way
love was poetically treated in the Western world.
From its roots in France, the romance tradition
spread to Italy, England, Germany, the Netherlands,
Portugal, Greece, and Spain. Two of the
most popular Spanish romances, The Book of Apollonius
and The Book of Alexander, composed between
1220 and 1240, return to the Matter of
Rome. In England the most popular romances
dealt with the legends of King Arthur, such as Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight or Sir Thomas Malory’s
The Death of Arthur. In Germany, the romances
of WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH and
GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG also contributed to the
Matter of Britain, and the most celebrated authors
of Italian romances—Boiardo, Ariosto, and
Torquato Tasso—all used characters from the
Roland tradition.
Critical Analysis
As a genre, the medieval romance is distinct from
the chronicle, which purported to relate a true history.
The romance is also quite different from epics
or the earlier heroic poetry. David Staines, who
translated the Arthurian romances of Chrétien de
Troyes, puts it thus: “Traditionally, the epic and
the chronicle depict a nation; their characters are
the embodiment of a national destiny; their ultimate
concern is the nation itself. By contrast, the
romance depicts the individual.” Scholar Foster
Guyer also observes that the romance introduced
several innovations into the literature: “important
feminine roles, a love element in narrative form, a
refined style, and an entirely new kind of plot.”
All romances share certain motifs, which
scholar John Stevens identifies as the following: the
hero’s sense of a vocation or quest; the presentation
of the heroine as distant, beautiful, and desirable;
the essential isolation of the hero and his
experience; and the feeling of involvement in a
mystery. Romances also frequently feature magic
elements or supernatural experiences.
Medieval romances were popular because they
focused their attention not on national character
but on human character.As Terence McCarthy says,
“Romance takes us close to its heroes; we share
their thoughts and see into their hearts.” The romance
genre also explored in a new way the treatment
of women in the medieval world. Scholar
Rosamund Allen observes that in literature prior
to romances, “Women were notoriously excluded
from positions of authority in medieval society.”
For this reason, women in literature frequently appeared
“in the archetypal roles of mother, sister,
daughter,wife and queen-consort”; in short, female
characters were defined by their relationship to
men. On the surface, medieval romances seemed to
elevate women by putting them in positions of
power and worshipping them for their grace and
beauty. Upon closer investigation, however, feminist
scholars observe that by making them the focus
of the male quest, trapping them in towers or prisons,
and valuing them for beauty or wealth rather
than for personality or achievements, medieval romances
simply continued to treat women as powerless
objects in stories dominated by men.
Almost as soon as it was established, the romantic
tradition began to investigate and even parody
itself. Romances frequently use humor to describe
situations in which the hero finds himself, and even
moments that the author intended to be serious
and tragic may appear funny to modern eyes in
their extravagant detail and sensational excess. Certain
authors of the later MIDDLE AGES questioned the
romance with particular skill. In his Troilus and
Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer examines the clash between
the epic and romance genres that inevitably
happens when an ancient tale is recast in romance
form.Ariosto draws away from the romantic tradition
in his Orlando Furioso, offering a comic treatment
of the repetitive and formulaic nature of
romance episodes and devices. And Don Quixote
(1605), by Miguel de Cervantes, is frequently seen
as the last great parody and the final break with romance
as a leading medieval literary genre.
Still, romantic conventions persisted in literature.
In the English tradition, many of William
Shakespeare’s plays stage a return to romance, but
with remarkably more complex psychological detail.
The Renaissance figures Sir Philip Sidney and
Edmund Spenser revived elements of the medieval
romance in Arcadia and The Faerie Queene, respectively,
but in these works the once-viable characteristics
of the romance appear archaic and even
quaint. In its farthest reaches, however, the medieval
romance is considered the precursor to the
modern novel. Even the contemporary definition
of romance inherits some qualities of its older
counterparts. In modern terms, a romance is inevitably
a love story and typically involves the
quest of a hero or heroine whose experiences and
emotions are the main focus of the tale; thus, this
most popular genre of secular medieval literature
permanently affected the way literature is received
in the modern world.
English Versions of Medieval Romances
Béroul. The Romance of Tristan. Translated by Alan S.
Fedrick. New York: Viking Press, 1978.
Boron, Robert de.Merlin and the Grail. Translated by
Nigel Bryant. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2001.
Chrétien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Translated
by D. D. R. Owen. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle,
1997.
Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The Romance
of the Rose. Translated by Charles Dahlberg.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Marie de France. The Lais of Marie de France. Translated
by Glyn Burgess. New York: Penguin, 1999.
The Song of Roland. Translated by Glyn Burgess. New
York: Penguin, 1990.
Works about Medieval Romance
Barron,W. R. J. English Medieval Romance. New York:
Longman, 1987.
Krueger, Roberta L., ed. The Cambridge Companion to
Medieval Romance. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.
Mills,Maldwyn, Jennifer Fellows and Carol M.Meale.
Romance in Medieval England. Cambridge, U.K.:
D. S. Brewer, 1991.

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