Novels of Chrétien de Troyes from the Viewpoint of Three Modern Theories of Novel

Abstract

The study discusses the works of the most important French medieval author, Chrétien de Troyes, from the viewpoint of each among three modern definitions of the novel (those of Mihail Bakhtin, Georg Lukács and Janko Kos). It establishes that certain aspects of the texts in question remain in the domain of the epic (the function of the collectivity, role of mythology, ideological unity and axiologically hermetic system, verse form etc.), but nevertheless contain several elements of the novel. Individualisation as a common feature of the three aforementioned theories can be noted on different levels (action, protagonist, conflict, reception) of the text. The latter is usually focused upon the present; plurilinguism takes shape in an overwhelming diversity of sources used therein, use of Romanic language and the intertextuality on various levels, whereas its dialogism manifests itself in diverse, sometimes hardly perceivable nuances of parody. The nature of conflicts implies a certain rupture between the subject and the world, which, according to Lukács, represents the fundamental characteristic of the novel. It is true that conflicts are resolved and the initial order regained, but it is nonetheless impossible to speak about the nonproblematic integrity of the epic world. These texts therefore represent the first manifestations of a protean genre that has not yet detached itself from the epic ground, principally due to the historic-philosophical and social-cultural conditions in which they were conceived.