Narcissism and Selfhood in Medieval French Literature

Wounds of Desire

verfasst von: Nicholas Ealy

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : The New Middle Ages

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book offers analyses of texts from medieval France influenced by Ovid’s myth of Narcissus including the Lay of Narcissus, Alain de Lille’s Plaint of Nature, René d’Anjou’s Love-Smitten Heart, Chrétien de Troyes’s Story of the Grail and Guillaume de Machaut’s Fountain of Love. Together, these texts form a corpus exploring human selfhood as wounded and undone by desire. Emerging in the twelfth century in Western Europe, this discourse of the wounded self has survived with ever-increasing importance, informing contemporary methods of theoretical inquiry into mourning, melancholy, trauma and testimony. Taking its cue from the moment Narcissus bruises himself upon learning he cannot receive the love he wants from his reflection, this book argues that the construct of the wounded self emphasizes fantasy over reality, and that only through the world of the imagination—of literature itself—can our narcissistic injuries seemingly be healed and desire fulfilled.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Narcissism and Selfhood in Context

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction: Narcissus and the Wounded Self

Abstract

This chapter presents narcissism and selfhood within the context of medieval French literature. Exploring Ovid’s myth of Narcissus, the dominant paradigm for selfhood in this literature, it examines the tale of how this boy, after falling in love with an image incapable of answering him, understands himself to be a subject doomed by frustrated longing, wounds himself and then dies. The construct of selfhood present within the medieval literature influenced by Ovid’s myth, relayed through discussions of Bernart de Ventadorn’s poetry and Guillaume de Lorris’s Romance of the Rose, bases itself upon the wound resulting from unrequited love for an image that undercuts the lover’s body. The wounded self therefore becomes the lens through which the literature this book treats is examined.

Nicholas Ealy

Chapter 2. Narcissus and Selfhood: The Lay of Narcissus

Abstract

This chapter treats narcissism and selfhood in the Lay of Narcissus (c. 1160). Analyzing the prophecy given to Narcissus (that he will live to old age provided he does not see himself), the chapter examines the link between seeing a reflection and the truth that such a reflection is the “self.” Dané, in love with Narcissus, provides an exploration of desire’s visual properties as inside (personalized longing) and outside (a force that overtakes) the human subject. An analysis of Narcissus’s encounter with his reflection provides a discussion of his exclamation “je me plaing” (I lament myself), marking his selfhood as wounded by unfulfillable desires. The chapter concludes by examining how vision cannot lead to truth and how love is an undeniable imperative for human subjects.

Nicholas Ealy

Selfhood and the Open Wound

Frontmatter

Chapter 3. Narcissus and Mourning: Alain de Lille’s Plaint of Nature

Abstract

This chapter treats narcissism and selfhood, through the lens of mourning, in Alain de Lille’s Plaint of Nature (c. 1168). Nature, intermediary between God and humanity, laments humanity’s desires, attempting to close through mourning this wound created by sin. Narcissus represents such sin because he desires his image, mistaken for another man, and corrupts language’s univocality. Nature, despite her divine imperative, embodies qualities of the narcissine image, something that jeopardizes her appeals for univocality and exposes her as an ambiguous figure who, as her mourning fails, cannot deny language’s polyvocality. Nature’s ambiguity therefore reveals Narcissus’s, for his desire to fuse to an image exposes his sin while reflecting the human soul’s desire for the divine, in turn reflecting the love God has for himself.

Nicholas Ealy

Chapter 4. Narcissus and Melancholy: René d’Anjou’s Book of the Love-Smitten Heart

Abstract

This chapter treats narcissism and selfhood, through the lens of melancholy, in René d’Anjou’s Book of the Love-Smitten Heart (c. 1457). Wounded by Love’s arrow upon seeing his beloved, René remains melancholic, incapable of satisfying his longing. Melancholy works to keep this wound open, creating a space where René can fixate upon his “loss” as fulfillment seems attainable. This chapter examines through text and illuminations the scenes where René’s heart (1) is removed by Love, (2) encounters the Fountain of Fortune, a spring of melancholic bile that allows him to fixate upon his beloved’s image, and (3) discovers he must submit to Love before the Diamond Mirror, a double of Narcissus’s fountain, realizing his selfhood is forever wounded by frustrated desires which, nonetheless, appear achievable.

Nicholas Ealy

The Wounded Self as Witness

Frontmatter

Chapter 5. Narcissus and Trauma: Chrétien de Troyes’s Story of the Grail

Abstract

This chapter treats narcissism and selfhood, through the lens of trauma, in Chrétien de Troyes’s Story of the Grail (c. 1181). Trauma, etymologically related to “wound” and “piercing” in Greek, appears in the text in a series of woundings in narcissine imagery that define Perceval’s selfhood. Denying the wounded bodies of his father, the Fisher King, and the goose of the blood-on-snow scene, Perceval searches for an unwounded selfhood based on knightly principles and violent autonomy. The wounded bodies point toward Perceval’s confrontation with Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday, the ultimate example of a traumatized body. Christ intersects with Narcissus’s myth and its emphasis upon the collapse of self and other, leading Perceval to accept himself as wounded by the needs of others through charity.

Nicholas Ealy

Chapter 6. Narcissus and Testimony: Guillaume de Machaut’s Fountain of Love

Abstract

This chapter treats narcissism and selfhood, through the lens of testimony, in Guillaume de Machaut’s Fountain of Love (c. 1360). As a testimony to love, the text relates the encounter between a forlorn lover and a clerk who composes the lover’s lament for his beloved lady. Both learn that unreciprocated vision and speech, due to language’s polyvocal nature, work against their testimonial appeal. The story of Narcissus, at the center of the text, complicates testimony as well, for this is a tale that, having no witnesses who can speak of Narcissus’s demise, resists its own telling. The sole recourse the lover has, I posit, is to resort to the fantastical world of literature and dreams, where his wounds seemingly are healed and desire fulfilled.

Nicholas Ealy

Chapter 7. Epilogue: Between Je me plaing and Iste ego sum

Abstract

This concluding chapter examines the self wounded through narcissistic desire in a discussion of works by Thibaut de Champagne, Derrida, Barthes, Butler, and Kristeva. Tracing the implications of Narcissus’s lament “je me plaing” (I lament myself) from the Lay of Narcissus, a testimonial appeal etymologically related to the wound (plaga in Latin), I posit that this cry establishes the definition of selfhood echoed throughout the literary texts analyzed in this book. As the cry implies, to be a self is to be wounded by an other that destroys any concept of an integrated subjectivity. The literature analyzed here, I argue, points to the notion that to be wounded by the other is to love, to desire, and to be fully human.

Nicholas Ealy

Backmatter

Titel: Narcissism and Selfhood in Medieval French Literature
verfasst von: Nicholas Ealy
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-27916-5
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27915-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27916-5