Desire, Meaning, and the Female Reader

The Prologue to Chrétien de Troyes’ Le Chevalier de la Charrete has probably done as much as any other document of the period to stir up controversy about the role aristocratic women played in the formation of courtly literature. For Gaston Paris and many scholars after him, Chrétien’s contention that he undertook the romance according to the wishes of Marie de Champagne and that she furnished both its matière and sens was proof that Marie and her female contemporaries transmitted a revolutionary concept of love to Northern France in the second half of the twelfth century. ¹ This thesis has sparked lively debate about what Marie’s matière and sens might have been, about how Chrétien acquitted himself of the task she imposed—with distaste or pleasure?—and about whether Lancelot exemplifies the perfect lover or a perfect fool. ² It has also given rise to the notion that the meaning of courtly literature was shaped by powerful women to conform to their desires, despite warnings about the tenuous nature of the evidence. ³