Parody marks the troubadour lyric from the outset, informing composition, performance and reception. This ground-breaking study moves away from courtliness, the focus of most previous studies, and places troubadour parodic practice in the context of the social and spiritual debates of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Occitania. Léglu analyses the complex relationship between troubadour verse and the Aquitainian para-liturgical Latin corpus. She charts the development of a chain of texts linked by a common formal model derived from this Latin sequence and traces patterns of rewriting, ranging from scurrilous attacks, through playful competition, to recuperation of the sacred content in serious parody.
Catherine Léglu is a Lecturer in French at the University of Bristol. She has written on troubadour satirical poetry and is editing Simone de Beauvoir's only play, Les Bouches inutiles.
Reviews:
‘Provides a very interesting combination of comparative analysis of musical and textual borrowings, with the discussion of the wider background and referents of the troubadours. This approach enlightens a too-often forgotten corpus of poetry and also provides a fruitful methodological model.’ — Miriam Cabré, French Studies LVI.2, 2002, 221-94
‘An interesting study that considerably increases our appreciation of the complex relationships between secular and sacred song and between canons and clerics, troubadours and jongleurs, categories that have too long been separated by different academic disciplines.’ — Laura Kendrick, Speculum October, 2003, 1338-40
unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies xxxix/1, 2003, 107
‘An insightful analysis of a series of medieval Occitan parodies... Specialists and graduate students will find themselves doubly served by Léglu's careful research as well as by her patient development of complex issues.’ — Daniel E. O'Sullivan, French Review 76.3, 2003, 594-5
‘Die Arbeit hält, was sie eingangs verspricht: Verf. zeigt vielfältige Aspekte jener miteinander dialogisierenden Texte auf, die sich im Grenzbereich zwischen erbaulicher und weltlicher Dichtung bewegen. Über die Reihenfolge der jeweils besprochenen Aspekte sowie über ihre Bedeutung im Einzelfall liesse sich sicherlich diskutieren.’ — Michael Bernsen, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 119, 2003, 355-7
‘Brilliant readings of individual texts, as well as invaluable exposition of liturgical and other ecclesiastical material relevant to troubadour compositions.’ — Linda M. Paterson, Medium Aevum LXXII.1, 2003, 148-9
‘Apporte un point de vue qui contribuera à faire progresser notre connaissance des troubadours.’ — Peter Ricketts, Revue des Langues Romanes CVII/2, 2003, 501-3
Hendrikje Haufe, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 116.2, 2006, 199-200
Bibliography entry:
Léglu, Catherine, Between Sequence and Sirventes: Aspects of Parody in the Troubadour Lyric, Research Monographs in French Studies, 8 (Legenda, 2000)
First footnote reference:35 Catherine Léglu, Between Sequence and Sirventes: Aspects of Parody in the Troubadour Lyric, Research Monographs in French Studies, 8 (Legenda, 2000), p. 21.
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