Proscribed Communication: The Obscene Language of the Troubadour William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers
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Fidel Fajardo-Acosta
Abstract
The first of the known European troubadours, William IX (1071‒1126), Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers, is notorious for a mixed oeuvre including beautiful love songs characteristic of the courtly love tradition and also raunchy and decidedly obscene compositions bristling with misogynistic resentment. Modern scholars sufficiently understand that such mixtures of hate and seeming adoration of women are two sides of the same patriarchal coin that objectifies and exploits women for the satisfaction of male objectives. It is perhaps less acknowledged, however, that the desire and hostility expressed toward women are ultimately aimed at the large political and economic powers that were developing in Europe during the High Middle Ages (ca. 1050‒1250). This essay explores the idea that the obscenity of some of William’s songs is just as much an expression of his arrogant and abusive attitudes toward women, as it is a symptom of his rage at being disempowered and rendered subservient to feudal powers larger than his own and to the economic ideas and practices associated with a then-nascent market capitalism. Moralizing, political and scholarly unwillingness to openly discuss the obscene language of William’s works, furthermore, is a manifestation of the activity of the same oppressive powers, as they discipline and reduce to obedience the subjects of our modern and postmodern western cultures. Forbidden language and forms of communication, then, modern and medieval, have to be understood as aspects of the suppression of thought and the concealment of inconvenient truths, which are necessary to sustain an unjust economic, political and social order.
Abstract
The first of the known European troubadours, William IX (1071‒1126), Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers, is notorious for a mixed oeuvre including beautiful love songs characteristic of the courtly love tradition and also raunchy and decidedly obscene compositions bristling with misogynistic resentment. Modern scholars sufficiently understand that such mixtures of hate and seeming adoration of women are two sides of the same patriarchal coin that objectifies and exploits women for the satisfaction of male objectives. It is perhaps less acknowledged, however, that the desire and hostility expressed toward women are ultimately aimed at the large political and economic powers that were developing in Europe during the High Middle Ages (ca. 1050‒1250). This essay explores the idea that the obscenity of some of William’s songs is just as much an expression of his arrogant and abusive attitudes toward women, as it is a symptom of his rage at being disempowered and rendered subservient to feudal powers larger than his own and to the economic ideas and practices associated with a then-nascent market capitalism. Moralizing, political and scholarly unwillingness to openly discuss the obscene language of William’s works, furthermore, is a manifestation of the activity of the same oppressive powers, as they discipline and reduce to obedience the subjects of our modern and postmodern western cultures. Forbidden language and forms of communication, then, modern and medieval, have to be understood as aspects of the suppression of thought and the concealment of inconvenient truths, which are necessary to sustain an unjust economic, political and social order.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- List of Illustrations IX
- Introduction: An Essay on Language, Culture, and Identity: Medieval and Early Modern Perspectives on and Approaches to Communication, Translation, and Community 1
- Ways of Communication and Mis/communication in Abū Tammām’s “Ode on the Conquest of Amorium” (838 C.E.) 95
- Proscribed Communication: The Obscene Language of the Troubadour William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers 109
- (Non)-Imaginary Ideal Communities in the Pre-Modern World: A Reading in the Utopian Works of al-Fārābi’, Ibn Khaldūn, Christine de Pizan, and Thomas More 159
- A Jewish Moneylender, Miscommunication, and a Lie: Gonzalo de Berceo’s Milagro no. 23 191
- Words, Signs, Meanings: William Langland’s Piers Plowman as a Window on Linguistic Chaos 209
- The Chaucerian Translator 233
- Entertainment, Laughter, and Reflections as a Training Ground for Communication in Public and Private: The Case of Heinrich Kaufringer, ca. 1400 255
- …written in my own Jewish hand 291
- Demonic Operators: Forbidden Relations in Medieval Communication 327
- Paroemiac Expressions: A Touch of Color in the Ambassadors’ Diplomatic Correspondence in the Fifteenth Century 351
- Communication and Translation in Early Modern Basque Society. The Role Played by the Public Notaries 379
- Preventing Miscommunication: Early Modern German Surgeons as Specialized Translators 393
- Reputation and Authority in the Physicians’ Communication with Patients as Reflected in the Czech-Language Sources of the Early Modern Period 415
- The Physicians’ Community in Pre-Thirty Years’ War Bohemia 439
- A Bond of True Love: Performing Courtship and Betrothal in Gower’s Cinkante balades and Spenser’s Amoretti, in Light of Christine de Pizan’s Cent balades 461
- Noble Friendship in Relation to the Community: Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice 491
- Deconstructing the (Mis)Interpretation of Paratextual Elements in Ross’s English Translation of the Qur’ān, The Alcoran of Mahomet (1649) 519
- Community and the Others: Unveiling Boundaries in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice 551
- Biographies of the Contributors 617
- Index 627
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Table of Contents V
- List of Illustrations IX
- Introduction: An Essay on Language, Culture, and Identity: Medieval and Early Modern Perspectives on and Approaches to Communication, Translation, and Community 1
- Ways of Communication and Mis/communication in Abū Tammām’s “Ode on the Conquest of Amorium” (838 C.E.) 95
- Proscribed Communication: The Obscene Language of the Troubadour William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and VII Count of Poitiers 109
- (Non)-Imaginary Ideal Communities in the Pre-Modern World: A Reading in the Utopian Works of al-Fārābi’, Ibn Khaldūn, Christine de Pizan, and Thomas More 159
- A Jewish Moneylender, Miscommunication, and a Lie: Gonzalo de Berceo’s Milagro no. 23 191
- Words, Signs, Meanings: William Langland’s Piers Plowman as a Window on Linguistic Chaos 209
- The Chaucerian Translator 233
- Entertainment, Laughter, and Reflections as a Training Ground for Communication in Public and Private: The Case of Heinrich Kaufringer, ca. 1400 255
- …written in my own Jewish hand 291
- Demonic Operators: Forbidden Relations in Medieval Communication 327
- Paroemiac Expressions: A Touch of Color in the Ambassadors’ Diplomatic Correspondence in the Fifteenth Century 351
- Communication and Translation in Early Modern Basque Society. The Role Played by the Public Notaries 379
- Preventing Miscommunication: Early Modern German Surgeons as Specialized Translators 393
- Reputation and Authority in the Physicians’ Communication with Patients as Reflected in the Czech-Language Sources of the Early Modern Period 415
- The Physicians’ Community in Pre-Thirty Years’ War Bohemia 439
- A Bond of True Love: Performing Courtship and Betrothal in Gower’s Cinkante balades and Spenser’s Amoretti, in Light of Christine de Pizan’s Cent balades 461
- Noble Friendship in Relation to the Community: Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice 491
- Deconstructing the (Mis)Interpretation of Paratextual Elements in Ross’s English Translation of the Qur’ān, The Alcoran of Mahomet (1649) 519
- Community and the Others: Unveiling Boundaries in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice 551
- Biographies of the Contributors 617
- Index 627
