Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’Orange

The Old French epic poem La Prise d’Orange (late 12th-early 13th c.) systematically treats the conventional motifs, narrative patterns, characters and style of the chanson de geste with a comedic irreverence and an ironic distance that have led it to be labeled “the courtly parody of an epic,” but t...

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Main Author: Lucas Wood
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société de Langues et de Littératures Médiévales d'Oc et d'Oil 2021-06-01
Series:Perspectives Médiévales
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/peme/38264
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author Lucas Wood
author_facet Lucas Wood
author_sort Lucas Wood
collection DOAJ
description The Old French epic poem La Prise d’Orange (late 12th-early 13th c.) systematically treats the conventional motifs, narrative patterns, characters and style of the chanson de geste with a comedic irreverence and an ironic distance that have led it to be labeled “the courtly parody of an epic,” but the text remains fundamentally organized by the generic paradigm from which it pointedly deviates. In Genettian terms, the Prise’s dominant hypertextual operation is travesty, which burlesques a prestigious text or story by recasting its characters and action in a ridiculously incongruous style—here, the narrative and rhetorical style associated with courtly discourse. The Prise cultivates a somewhat anxious enjoyment of its subversion of epic norms by thematizing the “folly” of its protagonist, Guillelme, whose absurd impersonation of a courtly lover casts doubt upon his legitimacy as an epic hero and the Prise’s “authenticity” as a chanson de geste. However, satirical transformation is ultimately reincorporated into the genre’s conservative narrative and ideological frameworks in a manner difficult to grasp through Genette’s system for lack of adequate distinctions between satire’s various possible ideological functions and stakes.
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spelling doaj-art-a7e34f5cb72446f1935ebf60633c94fe2025-01-13T15:29:48ZengSociété de Langues et de Littératures Médiévales d'Oc et d'OilPerspectives Médiévales2262-55342021-06-014210.4000/peme.38264Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’OrangeLucas WoodThe Old French epic poem La Prise d’Orange (late 12th-early 13th c.) systematically treats the conventional motifs, narrative patterns, characters and style of the chanson de geste with a comedic irreverence and an ironic distance that have led it to be labeled “the courtly parody of an epic,” but the text remains fundamentally organized by the generic paradigm from which it pointedly deviates. In Genettian terms, the Prise’s dominant hypertextual operation is travesty, which burlesques a prestigious text or story by recasting its characters and action in a ridiculously incongruous style—here, the narrative and rhetorical style associated with courtly discourse. The Prise cultivates a somewhat anxious enjoyment of its subversion of epic norms by thematizing the “folly” of its protagonist, Guillelme, whose absurd impersonation of a courtly lover casts doubt upon his legitimacy as an epic hero and the Prise’s “authenticity” as a chanson de geste. However, satirical transformation is ultimately reincorporated into the genre’s conservative narrative and ideological frameworks in a manner difficult to grasp through Genette’s system for lack of adequate distinctions between satire’s various possible ideological functions and stakes.https://journals.openedition.org/peme/38264epicparodysatirecomedychanson de gestefin’amor
spellingShingle Lucas Wood
Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’Orange
Perspectives Médiévales
epic
parody
satire
comedy
chanson de geste
fin’amor
title Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’Orange
title_full Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’Orange
title_fullStr Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’Orange
title_full_unstemmed Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’Orange
title_short Reading “Guillelme l’Amïable”: Hypertextuality and La Prise d’Orange
title_sort reading guillelme l amiable hypertextuality and la prise d orange
topic epic
parody
satire
comedy
chanson de geste
fin’amor
url https://journals.openedition.org/peme/38264
work_keys_str_mv AT lucaswood readingguillelmelamiablehypertextualityandlaprisedorange