Ibn Quzman and William IX of Aquitaine: Lyrics of the Obscene as an Example of the Carnival Intersection Between Arabic and Troubadour Lyric Poetry

Authors

  • Alen Širca

Keywords:

medieval poetry, Spain, Arabic poetry, Provençal poetry, troubadour poetry, laughter, obscenity, carnival, Bakhtin, Mikhail

Abstract

Versions of the “Arabic hypothesis” regarding the Arabic origin of Provençal lyric poetry have been known for five hundred years. It was most in vogue in the first half of the 20th century, with leading advocates such as Alois Richard Nykl, Samuel Miklos Stern, and Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Relevant comparisons focused especially on formal similarities (e.g., the “zajalesque” strophe), and this primarily within the genre of love poetry. Although findings on a similar formal structure between Andalusian poets and Provençal troubadours have not lost their relevance, later researchers have shown that the apparently similar codices of the love ethics of both poetries are basically different because this simply concerns ethical systems that must be understood within the different social and religious contexts of Muslim Iberia on the one hand, and of Christian Occitania on the other hand.

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Published

2017-10-04

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Articles