Gauvain e il corpo smembrato: allegorie nell' "Atre Périlleux"

VIRDIS, MAURIZIO

2013-01-01

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Abstract

L’Atre Périlleux is an anonymous French romance of the thirteenth century and it is part of the literary movement that calls into question the tradition of courtly romance dating back to Chrétien de Troyes. More than to the ideology and instances of the class of minor nobility and chivalry, our romance responds to the clergie’s needs and intellectual perspectives, and it mocks the traditional values of chivalry. L’Atre Périlleux is conducted, with a hint of humour and a complicated plot, on metaliterary and allegorical tracks (and Gauvain’s dismembered body is the most prominent symbol of this allegorical tone), so that our romance stands as a critique of courtly society decadence, nevertheless animated by the purpose of its moral renewal.