ABSTRACT
The historical Jean de Meun was clearly well informed about allegorical and exegetical traditions, but this is not the project he pursues in the Rose. The Rose guides its readers through an extensive and intricate tour of Latin authors, both ancient and medieval. Since much of this 'tour' is implicit, and little or no contextual information is given even when citations are explicitly identified, one would have to say that the Rose presupposes, rather than provides, knowledge of these texts. But with the juxtapositions and layerings that the poem produces and the rereadings that it invites, Guillaume and especially Jean encourage their readers to discover new meanings in old texts. In the Rose, masculine jouissance lurks at the inaccessible exterior of poetic fictions, of idealized images, of spiritual sublimation. It is subject to extensive and detailed legal, moral and social codes, yet always exceeds their regulatory efforts, eluding Reason's control, and remaining a law unto itself.
