The form of romantic love has its roots in French literature. The emotions, excitement and troubles caused by the feeling were first expressed by French medieval lyric poets called troubadours. They wrote songs and poems of a complex metrical form mainly on themes of courtly love. It was an idealized and often illicit form of love celebrated in the literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in which a knight devoted himself to a noblewoman who was usually married and feigned indifference to preserve her reputation.
The dreamy love of XI century became in France a social force shaping the lives of millions of women and men in modern culture. It was spread from south of France to all its corners and reached even part of Italy, Germany and England.
The image of troubadours singing about ‘amour courtois’, is some kind of picture describing relation between men and women in Middle Ages. However, the portrait of courtly love was taken from mystic literature of that time and it probably had nothing to do with harsh and gloomy realities of people living those times.
There is a dispute between some of today’s critics stating that ‘fin’amors’ had never existed in literature of Western Europe before XI century. But others, like Peter Dronke, prove that adorable and sorrowful love was already demonstrated in literature of Egypt, Spain, and Georgia and in other countries as well. As an evidence of ‘courtly love’, he gives example a song called Wulf and Eadwacer written by a European women before X century.
In Middle Age literature there are no many names of authors because they are unknown. The identity if it was man or woman it’s been analyzed through the way they expressed the passion, lamentation and other emotions in certain song or poem. Because women did not have many rights that time, they were often hiding their names under a male name.
The idea of ‘courtly love’ was often presented in French literature as not only a romantic, passionate and idealistic but also with moments of desperation, anxiety, jealousy and hopelessness. Many of the poetic compositions were supposed to guide with suggestions of romantic and spiritual courtly love.
There had been two descriptions of women troubadours: ‘feminine’ and ‘domna’. The first one is a version of hatred, dislike, or mistrust women. The other one is considered as a beautiful lady to whom all the poetry is directed but her tasks are rather unresisting and characterized by reaction. ‘Domna’ will not get any help if her man leaves her. Therefore, suffering, dissatisfaction and grief of abandonment is often the main subject of the poetry sang by troubadours.
Women in medieval times had a really hard life. Many social bans, difficulties of bringing up children, the worries of every day and scary thoughts of the future world were the matters really important and persuasive for them. It is really surprising that women in literature were seen only as beauties loved by their hero and mistresses but hardly ever there is mentioned their hard work of every day.
The dreamy love of XI century became in France a social force shaping the lives of millions of women and men in modern culture. It was spread from south of France to all its corners and reached even part of Italy, Germany and England.
The image of troubadours singing about ‘amour courtois’, is some kind of picture describing relation between men and women in Middle Ages. However, the portrait of courtly love was taken from mystic literature of that time and it probably had nothing to do with harsh and gloomy realities of people living those times.
There is a dispute between some of today’s critics stating that ‘fin’amors’ had never existed in literature of Western Europe before XI century. But others, like Peter Dronke, prove that adorable and sorrowful love was already demonstrated in literature of Egypt, Spain, and Georgia and in other countries as well. As an evidence of ‘courtly love’, he gives example a song called Wulf and Eadwacer written by a European women before X century.
In Middle Age literature there are no many names of authors because they are unknown. The identity if it was man or woman it’s been analyzed through the way they expressed the passion, lamentation and other emotions in certain song or poem. Because women did not have many rights that time, they were often hiding their names under a male name.
The idea of ‘courtly love’ was often presented in French literature as not only a romantic, passionate and idealistic but also with moments of desperation, anxiety, jealousy and hopelessness. Many of the poetic compositions were supposed to guide with suggestions of romantic and spiritual courtly love.
There had been two descriptions of women troubadours: ‘feminine’ and ‘domna’. The first one is a version of hatred, dislike, or mistrust women. The other one is considered as a beautiful lady to whom all the poetry is directed but her tasks are rather unresisting and characterized by reaction. ‘Domna’ will not get any help if her man leaves her. Therefore, suffering, dissatisfaction and grief of abandonment is often the main subject of the poetry sang by troubadours.
Women in medieval times had a really hard life. Many social bans, difficulties of bringing up children, the worries of every day and scary thoughts of the future world were the matters really important and persuasive for them. It is really surprising that women in literature were seen only as beauties loved by their hero and mistresses but hardly ever there is mentioned their hard work of every day.
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