Power Broker or Broken Power: Violence and the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Social Standing in Medieval French and Iberian Literature

Abstract

This project takes up the question of how an individual's social situation can impact their interpersonal relationships by looking at the ways that race, gender, and social standing impact violent interactions between characters in two genres of medieval poetry, the fabliaux and the pastorela, written during the Middle Ages in France and Iberia. The theories of intersectionality, gender, genre, and the monster facilitate this study as they help the reader better understand the social dynamics within these texts. Chapter one studies Marcabru's 12th-century poem "L'autrer jost' una sebissa" and the role that race, gender, and social standing play in the interaction between the two main characters. Chapter two foregrounds femininity and looks at the lines between de-feminization and de-humanization in the fabliau "La vieille truande," and Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor. Chapter three turns toward the male characters and looks at how space impacts power in the Libro de buen amor and the fabliaux "Le prestre crucifie." This project's goal is to help the reader better understand the power dynamics in their 21st-century life through the study of medieval texts; therefore, the project closes with a discussion on ways that the author has incorporated this work into his work as a teacher in secondary education.