The transformative power of love: The negation of the subject in mysticism and troubadour fin’ amors

322 Pages·2010·1.3 MB·English

by  Valerie Wilhite

THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF LOVE:
THE NEGATION OF THE SUBJECT
IN MYSTICISM AND TROUBADOUR
FIN’ AMORS

BY

VALERIE WILHITE

DISSERTATION

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature
in the Graduate College of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010

Urbana, Illinois

Doctoral Committee:

Professor C. Stephen Jaeger, Chair
Associate Professor Karen Fresco
Associate Professor Richard Layton
Professor Keith Busby, University of Wisconsin-Madison
UMI Number: 3455793

All rights reserved

INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.

In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.

UMI 3455793
Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

ProQuest LLC
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346
ABSTRACT

This dissertation compares the works of select troubadours with three mystical tracts in
order to present the similarities found in these two literary traditions. Mystical writings have a
far longer history reaching into antiquity and continuing until the present day. The traces in the
manuscript traditions situate in the late eleventh century a new poetic form in Occitan with a
focus on earthly love. The love as it is described in the songs of the composers who write or sing
about it comes to be called bon amors or fin’ amors, the term we use today to name the love of
the troubadour tradition. The period of lyrical production in Occitan by troubadours speaking of
fin’ amors does not endure more than three centuries if we begin our count with Guilhem IX
(1071-1126) and close with the poet so often called the last of the troubadours, Guiraut Riquier
(1254-1292). These two traditions of love literature are thus distinguished by the nature of their
literary histories and also by the loves they describe. Despite this, the shape of the loves they
discuss as well as the language used to speak about love are not so different.

ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
SUBJECT AND SELF IN COMPARING TROUBADOURS AND MYSTICS...............................................2
PREVIOUS SCHOLARSHIP..............................................................................................................4
CURRENT SCHOLARSHIP...............................................................................................................8
JUSTIFICATION OF THE CORPUS..................................................................................................14
OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION.................................................................................................20
PART I: CONSIDERING THE SELF..........................................................................................23
CHAPTER 1: THE SELF ACCORDING TO TROUBADOURS AND MYSTICS...................27
THE BODY IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF.........................................................................27
THE EMOTIVE UNITY OF THE SELF.............................................................................................32
Emotions.................................................................................................................................35
The Will as Self or Entangled with the Emotions...................................................................39
Love and Self: Will or Emotion?............................................................................................43
THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS AND SELFHOOD.............................................................................58
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................66
CHAPTER 2: DECONSTRUCTING THE SELF IN TROUBADOUR AND MYSTICAL
THOUGHT...................................................................................................................................68
LOVE AS TRANSFORMATIVE.......................................................................................................68
LOSING THE SELF FOR LOVE.......................................................................................................75
The Body and Loss of Self......................................................................................................76
Mental functions and the Loss of Self.....................................................................................83
PART II: THE TROUBADOURS.............................................................................................108
CHAPTER 3: COSSIR E REMIRE: SEEING, DREAMING, AND CONTEMPLATIVE
ENVISIONING IN THE TROUBADOUR’S PROCESS OF LOSING THE SELF.................109
ANTIQUE SOURCES AND CONTEMPORARY THEORIES OF OPTICS..............................................110
THE SUBJECTIVITY OF SEEING AND BEING SEEN......................................................................115
IMAGINING AND DREAMING THE OTHER AND LOSING THE SELF..............................................120
Cossirar: Contemplating the Beloved and Losing the Self..................................................130
The Visual Creation and Destruction of a Subject...............................................................135
CHAPTER 4: BERNART DE VENTADORN SINGING THE FADING SELF......................141
DEFINING THE LOVER AS SELFLESS..........................................................................................141
THE FRAILTY OF THE CENTERED BODY, WILL, AND MIND.......................................................151
Cor e cors.............................................................................................................................153
Fors’ e poder........................................................................................................................170
Saber e sen...........................................................................................................................187
PART III: THE MYSTICS.........................................................................................................193
THE TRADITIONS OF MYSTICISM..............................................................................................194
BODY........................................................................................................................................196
ENVISIONING............................................................................................................................199
LANGUAGE...............................................................................................................................201

iii
CHAPTER 5: THE IMAGE AND ENVISIONING IN THE MYSTICISM OF
ANGELA DA FOLIGNO ........................................................................................................... 205
FEMALE FRANCISCANS ............................................................................................................. 205
ANGELA DA FOLIGNO ............................................................................................................... 206
CHAPTER 6: FROM IMAGE TO TEXT IN THE MYSTICISM OF
MARGUERITE D‘OINGT ......................................................................................................... 241
THE WOMEN CARTHUSIANS ..................................................................................................... 241
MARGUERITE D‘OINGT ............................................................................................................. 242
CHAPTER 7: THE LOVER RAFFINNÉE OF COURTLY LITERATURE BECOMES THE
SOUL ANIENTIE OF THE BEGUINES AND MARGUERITE PORETE ............................... 255
CONCLUDING THE DISSERTATION UNITING MYSTICAL AND FIN' AMORS WRITING .................. 255
THE BEGUINES AND THE HERESY OF THE FREE SPIRIT ............................................................. 256
The Tradition of Fin' Amors in Mysticism before Marguerite Porete ................................. 257
MARGUERITE PORETE .............................................................................................................. 267
CONCLUDING REMARKS ...................................................................................................... 281
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 283

iv
INTRODUCTION

This study will explore new ways we can account for this sameness. I propose that
though the love objects of troubadours and mystics are worlds apart—one found in the beyond
and of a divine nature, the other found here on earth and all too human— the two érotiques, or
ways of loving, do in fact share a common structure. I suggest that the similarities in the
literature of mystics and troubadours can be explained most of all by the fact that both groups
share a common understanding of the self and the common goal of dismantling the self before a
superior being.
A shared vocabulary of images, notions, and linguistic features sets out the connection.
The first section of the dissertation will introduce the discourse of these two traditions as that of
the fragile self. Part two will analyze how these images, ideas, and language are used to
destabilize the centered self in the work of various troubadours, including Jaufré Rudel, Arnaut
de Maruelh, Falquet de Romans, and Bernart de Ventadorn. Part three will look at these same
elements in the works of the mystics Angela da Foligno, Marguerite d’Oingt and Marguerite
Porete. The dissertation demonstrates how the negation of the self within the experience of love
can account for the sameness in texts in two different love traditions.
The idea of love as transformative is shared by both érotiques. In both discourses love
has the capacity to better the lover. In troubadour lyric just as in mystical literature it is
suggested that through love one should come to resemble the beloved in qualities and character.
Both the courtly as well as the religious authors here consider love a powerful force that takes
over a willing or unwilling subject. Love is spoken of at once as an act and as a supreme being,
or God.
1
Body parts flee the subject to join the beloved in the images of these authors. At times
the subject simply loses parts of the body. Also body parts are willingly given to the beloved as
a token of the lover, most notably the heart. At times the heart is imagined as housed inside the
beloved, and at times the beloved is imagined to be inside the lover. Both of these images can be
evoked within a single work. The image of the lover as an empty vessel before the beloved is
also common to both troubadours and mystics. I shall explore the reasons for the shared imagery
and vocabulary.
Subject and Self in Comparing Troubadours and Mystics

This dissertation will look to the common notion of subject or self that structures the
thinking of both troubadours and mystics. In general “self” and “subject,” and for medieval texts
even “soul,” designate the same entity. However, while I use the “self” to refer to the entity
itself, the being, I generally use the term “subject” to highlight the self as considered from
outside, either by the self through a sort of imaginary mirror, or by another. In this way my use
of the term “subject” functions as it does in philosophy by designating the self-consciousness or
self-reflexive I who thinks of him or herself. My understanding of selfhood is certainly
influenced by my readings of Augustine, medieval mystical and theological writings, and
modern writers from psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. However, for the purposes of
this work it is primarily the authors studied here who guide the way through the labyrinth of
speaking the self—its construction and deconstruction. The significance of my debt to these
authors and the way they work to underpin my thinking will be addressed in Part I.
Each of the authors, troubadours and mystics, suggests that the self is an entity
constructed through time and comprised of various parts including the body, the mind or mental
2
functions, and the emotions or spirit or cor, arma, and esperitz. Each one of these sites
represents a possible home for the situation of the subject, and yet at the same time presents a
site for the subversion of the subject, as none of these alone can fully explain the unity of the self
to the subject. The constructed nature of the self, and the definition of each element, as it is
understood by both the mystics and troubadours, will be the subject of the first chapter of this
dissertation.
As noted earlier, both mystics and troubadours present the self as fragile and capable of
being weakened by outside forces. Also, both suggest that the best way to love and to reach the
idolized loved one is to destroy the self. Each author treated here has conceived a process of
self-elimination, that is, through creating works with particular images, ideas, and words mystics
and troubadours have created a mechanism for dislodging the body, the mind, and the emotions
from the frame of the unified self. Each part of the self can then be used to weaken the solidity
of the subject. While flagellants and ascetics prioritize the bodily in their attempts to destroy the
self, the authors in this study at times refer to the body as enemy to themselves or to their union
with the beloved. The emotions obviously play a large role. Desire, the expression of will, lies
at the heart of the self and is, paradoxically, a great obstacle to union with the beloved. Both
troubadours and mystics explicitly say that the will of the lover must be in complete accord with
the will of the beloved or love does not truly exist. While the term fin’ amors appears in
troubadour lyric it is interesting to note that the mystical writer Marguerite Porete, like other
religious writers before her, adopted the words to describe the love between religious practicant
and God. In all of the authors studied here the way the mind works, the role of language and
thinking in the construction, and deconstruction, of the self is peculiar and yet common to each
of them. Imagining and contemplating the image of the beloved is one means of reaching the
3
beloved in the érotiques of both troubadour and mystic. For both, language is often said to
become inadequate, even meaningless, when faced with the great qualities of the beloved or the
experience of love. Language also seems less a means of expressing an experience and more a
means of constituting that experience. In this way these images, ideas, and words function
within the framework of a type of desire or love that makes use of words to reach the goal of
destroying the self.
Previous Scholarship

The first brief discussions that brought together the realms of the religious and the courtly
song did so predominantly in hopes of arriving at a definitive declaration of origin for the courtly
lyric of the troubadours. Already in the nineteenth century scholars were eager to discover
where courtly love originated many focusing their attention on the troubadours. While some
scholars suggested that popular song was at the origin of troubadour lyric1, others2 like Guido
Errante detailed the structural and rhythmic features3 that found their way from the liturgy into
the songs of the troubadours; though he does also speak of the possibility that a musical feature

1 Those who were most interested in popular forms of poetry were Friedrick Diez, Joseph Bédier,
and Ramon Menéndez Pidal.

2 Others who focused on the relation between latin sources were Edmond Faral, R. Bezzola, and
Dimitri Scheludko. Edmond Faral, Recherches Sur Les Sources Latines des Contes et Romans
Courtois du Moyen Âge (Paris: É.Champion, 1913). Reto R. Bezzola. Les origines et la
formation de la littérature courtoise en Occident (500-1200). Paris: É. Champion, 1944. Dimitri
Scheludko. "Religiöse Elemente im weltlichen Liebeslied der Trobadors." Zeitschrift
für französische Sprache und Literatur LIX (1935): 402-21.

3 What he calls the “sviluppi propriamente tecnici,” [completely technical developments] Guido
Errante, Marcabru E Le Fonti Sacre Dell'antica Lirica Romanza (Firenze, Italy: G. C. Sansoni,
1948) 106.
4
“prende radici da forze profondamente e universalmente sentite, che invadono tutta la sfera
dell'espressione.”4 On the other hand, Gay-Crosier who is also concerned with the question of
origins, decides to move away from the scholars who were preoccupied with specific borrowings
saying, “I have preferred to emphasize the term sphere of influence rather than the traditional one
of source, since the former implies the strict avoidance of any one rigid approach or point of
view.”5 Instead, Gay-Crosier simply feels the language of one world can glide and slip into the
discourse of another.6 He suggests that troubadours heard the language and the themes of
mysticism for which he says, “the troubadours had a ready ear.”7 Gay-Crosier admits his is not
more than an introduction to the religious elements found in troubadour lyric and he outlines the
topic with broad strokes which it would be hard to refute. He claims that troubadour songs call
to mind mysticism because mystical ideas were in the air and troubadours adapted them for their
own lyric. Not unlike Errante and Gay-Crosier, Diego Zorzi sifts through the lyric of
troubadours in search of explicit references to religious phenomena. His is a morphologically-
based study that stands on concrete examples, but it does not explain why it is songs that do not
refer explicitly to religion remind listeners, medieval and modern, of the love for God.8 The

4 Take root with a profound force felt universally that permeates the whole realm of expression.
Errante, Marcabru E Le Fonti Sacre Dell'antica Lirica Romanza 109. Errante might be willing
to speak of influence in broader, general terms of “sfera dell’espressione,” on occasion.

5 Raymond Gay-Crosier, Religious Elements in the Secular Lyrics of the Troubadours (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971) 11.

6 Gay-Crosier 99.

7 Gay-Crosier 90.

8 Diego Zorzi, Valori Religiosi Nella Letteratura Provenzale: La Spiritualità Trinitaria,
Pubblicazioni. 44, ed. Cuore Università cattolica del Sacro (Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1954).
5