ABSTRACT
A remarkable case of transgressive lovers appears in Marie de France's Equitan, a lai that seems firmly rooted in courtly norms but then shifts abruptly into the realm of fabliaux. Monica L. Wright asserts that Marie herself is playing a game with literary conventions to foil audience expectations. Marie does not simply invert the fin'amors triangle but upsets the feudal structure itself: a king should not choose his seneschal's wife as his lover, nor should a seneschal perform kingly duties. The characters’ non-normative behaviors permit a shift to the ludic and demand a grotesque ending: in fabliaux, those who play a game badly are doomed to punishment. Turning to anthropological evidence, Wright discovers a convincing analog in modern-day Mardi Gras rituals in Louisiana, a socially sanctioned interlude during which the normal hierarchical positions invert. Certain transgressions are tolerated, but those who flaunt festival “law” incur punishment. By reading through this lens, we see how Marie employs carnivalesque strategies to structure this lai, ultimately satirizing the very courtly ideals her other lais help to establish.
