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4. The Game of Rape: Sexual Violence and Social Class in the Pastourelle

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Ravishing Maidens
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4. The Game of Rape: Sexual Violenceand Social Class in the PastourelleHow can we account for persistent associations of masculinity withpower, for the higher value placed on manhood than on womanhood,. . . without some attention to symbolic systems, that is to the wayssocieties represent gender, use it to articulate the rules of socialrelationships, or construct the meaning of experience.—Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Categoryof Historical Analysis," 1063Just as the trial scenes in Le Roman de Renart create an imaginary place inwhich rape can become comic, so too does the medieval pastourelle con-stitute a discursive space in which one can laugh at the spectacle of rape.The pastourelle further resembles the branches of the Renart discussed inthe previous chapter in that its levity does not preclude a degree of se-riousness. The pastourelle uses the representation of sexual violence as asymbolic system which functions as a locus of political thought, inscribingits reflection on law, power, and social class on the body of the femalecharacter. The pastourelle tropes rape as the inevitable encounter betweenthe members of two different social milieus.The existence of an indigenous pastoral poetry in the French MiddleAges is in itself hardly surprising, especially since the poetry of Virgil wasknown, translated, and studied in medieval schools.1 This new pastoralgenre, a lyric form called the pastourelle (pastoure is the Old French term for"shepherdess") appeared in the European twelfth century.2 The songs werefirst composed in the Provencal language of southern France, then flour-ished in Old French in northern France.'The medieval pastourelle displays predictable differences from the par-adigm established in Virgil's Eclogues: the love celebrated is heterosexual,never homosexual; the poet-narrator takes on not the voice of the rusticshepherd but that of the knight. The genre presents several possible

4. The Game of Rape: Sexual Violenceand Social Class in the PastourelleHow can we account for persistent associations of masculinity withpower, for the higher value placed on manhood than on womanhood,. . . without some attention to symbolic systems, that is to the wayssocieties represent gender, use it to articulate the rules of socialrelationships, or construct the meaning of experience.—Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Categoryof Historical Analysis," 1063Just as the trial scenes in Le Roman de Renart create an imaginary place inwhich rape can become comic, so too does the medieval pastourelle con-stitute a discursive space in which one can laugh at the spectacle of rape.The pastourelle further resembles the branches of the Renart discussed inthe previous chapter in that its levity does not preclude a degree of se-riousness. The pastourelle uses the representation of sexual violence as asymbolic system which functions as a locus of political thought, inscribingits reflection on law, power, and social class on the body of the femalecharacter. The pastourelle tropes rape as the inevitable encounter betweenthe members of two different social milieus.The existence of an indigenous pastoral poetry in the French MiddleAges is in itself hardly surprising, especially since the poetry of Virgil wasknown, translated, and studied in medieval schools.1 This new pastoralgenre, a lyric form called the pastourelle (pastoure is the Old French term for"shepherdess") appeared in the European twelfth century.2 The songs werefirst composed in the Provencal language of southern France, then flour-ished in Old French in northern France.'The medieval pastourelle displays predictable differences from the par-adigm established in Virgil's Eclogues: the love celebrated is heterosexual,never homosexual; the poet-narrator takes on not the voice of the rusticshepherd but that of the knight. The genre presents several possible

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction: The Archeology of Rape in Medieval Literature and Law 1
  5. 1. Plotting Rape in the Female Saints' Lives 21
  6. 2. The Poetics of Rape Law: Chretien de Troyes's Arthurian Romance 42
  7. 3. Replaying Rape: Feudal Law on Trial in Le Roman de Renart 72
  8. 4. The Game of Rape: Sexual Violence and Social Class in the Pastourelle 104
  9. 5. The Complicity of Law and Literature 122
  10. Conclusion 141
  11. Notes 145
  12. Bibliography 177
  13. Index 189
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https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812200331.104

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction: The Archeology of Rape in Medieval Literature and Law 1
  5. 1. Plotting Rape in the Female Saints' Lives 21
  6. 2. The Poetics of Rape Law: Chretien de Troyes's Arthurian Romance 42
  7. 3. Replaying Rape: Feudal Law on Trial in Le Roman de Renart 72
  8. 4. The Game of Rape: Sexual Violence and Social Class in the Pastourelle 104
  9. 5. The Complicity of Law and Literature 122
  10. Conclusion 141
  11. Notes 145
  12. Bibliography 177
  13. Index 189
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