| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 241 pages) |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-229) and index. |
| Summary |
The alba, or dawn-song, takes its name from the hour at which it is sung. Appearing in southern France around the middle of the twelfth century, the genre presents the parting plaints of adulterous lovers. Such erotically charged songs blend the lyricism, dramatic power, and poignancy implicit in the lovers' plight. The alba is the only genre in an emerging vernacular lyric corpus whose focus is reciprocal romantic love. Gale Sigal reexamines the role of the female voice as it is commonly viewed in the history of Western lyric. Among lyric ladies, the alba lady plays a vital role: she dramatizes the female love experience in her own voice. The traditional image of the silenced and repressed lady of the canso (the "canonical lyric genre") is overturned by the alba lady's forceful presence and eloquent voice. That voice cries out for a hearing, while the canso lady's is still. Erotic Dawn-Songs redirects our attention to this lyric lady, who for the first time assumes her rightful place at the critical center of a lyric continuum in which an array of women are presented from varying points of view. In the process this book crosses a number of disciplinary borders, including comparative literature, social and literary history, women's studies, and medieval studies. |
| Contents |
Theoretical and generic parameters -- The lyric lady and the alba -- pt. I. The alba lady: literary and social perspectives. The alba lady: literary perspectives. The humanized ideal. The alba lady: sex roles and social roles. Adulterous love and the alba. Eros in the socius. Power, gender, and class: the love triangle. Fin'amors: conflicting loyalties; divided selves -- pt. II. Eros and identity. Eros and dawning identity. Nocturnal wonders: (k)night calls. Love's timeless utopia: regressive fantasies. Fusion, androgyny, inseparability. First light: mask and masquerade. Janus-faced dawn and the dualisms of love: pivot and potentiality. Cruel dawn. The dawn descends: the refrain. Conclusion: the fractured self: songs of mo(u)rning. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Poetry, Medieval -- History and criticism.
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Poetry, Medieval. |
|
Erotic poetry -- History and criticism.
|
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Erotic poetry. |
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Albas -- History and criticism.
|
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Albas. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
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Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Sigal, Gale. Erotic dawn-songs of the Middle Ages. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, ©1996 081301381X (DLC) 95042861 (OCoLC)33243541 |
| ISBN |
0813023394 (electronic book) |
|
9780813023397 (electronic book) |
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