ABSTRACT
Condescension toward the object of our study deprives us of full insight in a variety of ways. Diachronie studies sometimes shortchange the artist's synchronic achievement. Psychological analyses project our own mindset onto the medievals by viewing them in their best moments as forerunners of ourselves. Our real goal is to discover in what terms characteristics jarring to us—especially indirection in the plot—did make sense to Chrétien and his audience. The answer is: allegory along the lines of clerkly exegesis of Scripture. The traditional term for this discipline—hermeneutics—was expanded in the twentieth century to apply to the interpretation of literature generally.
