Ego Vox Clamantis in Deserto: the lyricization of human authority in 13th-Century French dits

Abstract

In this work, I consider a theoretical foundation based on the treatment of literary auctores in the 13th-century latinate literary culture as a useful tool in discerning the development of lyrical self-expression in contemporary Old French dits. I first approach the surviving corpus of works attributed to the writer Rutebeuf in order to determine how scribal treatment of this vernacular author interacted with erudite Latinate literary theory. Critically, how did scribes manipulate the space in which Rutebeuf existed as a writer? How are the varied forms of transmission - from large swaths of unified sections to the inclusion of one single dit within a manuscript of a few hundred folia - to be understood within the framework of an active literary culture? I argue that the lively manipulation and appropriation of Rutbeuf's works within various textual and thematic environments attest to a wider discursive reception of the author as a true source of experiential knowledge. Moreover, the self-portrayal that Rutebeuf effected through the construction of his persona is further proof that the vernacular writer himself was a part of this evolving discursive process. In order to justify the claim that this reception was allowed by a wider re-evaluation of the function of vernacular writers, I apply the same approach with a near contemporary of Rutebeuf, Adam de la Halle. As melodic composition and oral performativity risk eroding the existence of the lyrical writer within the work, how did Adam operate within his formative literary sphere as an author? What was the nature of the connection between the writer and his work that communicated ownership over sense and interpretation by the creator of the text? The game of monophony and polyphony in mediating the voices that constitute a work is equally as critical - how did Adam reflect himself from the chansons onto his jeux?