“Intertextuality” in the 12th Century: Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes

Abstract

The article makes a significant contribution to research on the problem of the connection between Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes, the most famous and innovative French authors of the reign of Henry II. The aim of the work is to demonstrate how this influence is reflected through a systematic review of the numerous indirect echoes and reciprocal references, in other words, the intertextual and interdiscursive links between the works of Chrétien and Marie. These links allow us to consider certain lays of Marie de France devoted to the metamorphoses of people into animals (e. g., “Yonec,” “Bisclavret”) as a “Breton” version of ancient Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.” These motifs borrowed from Marie were then adapted by the young Chrétien as well as certain episodes (paternal love in the “Two Lovers” and the “Philomena,” the meeting at the window in “Rossignol” and “Lancelot,” the drops of bird’s blood in the “Aüstic” and “Perceval”) and the use of the word “surplus” attest this.