Multifaceted Lyric Ladies, Intergeneric Play and Contrafacture in the Songs of Thibaut de Champagne

The 63 songs of the 13th century trouvère Thibaut de Champagne show a remarkably hybrid structure which resists easy classification into registers, instead engaging in a kind of intergeneric play that highlights the porous nature of such boundaries. This article explores the concept of the archidame , or archi-lady , an abstract personage who can be realized, according to context, as the subject of a love song, devotional song , or pastourelle. The rhetorical strategies linking secular and Marian songs are particularly intricate, and are explored via an analysis of the debate genre, which serves as a crucible for the ethics of courtly love. The debate song is also at the hub of the network of contrafacture , which is proving to play a significant role in the social network of courtly poetry.

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