Narcissism and Selfhood in Medieval French Literature: Wounds of Desire

Description

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Introduction: Narcissus and the Wounded Self (Nicholas Ealy)....Pages 3-23 Narcissus and Selfhood: TheLay of Narcissus (Nicholas Ealy)....Pages 25-56 Front Matter ....Pages 57-57 Narcissus and Mourning: Alain de Lille’s Plaint of Nature (Nicholas Ealy)....Pages 59-101 Narcissus and Melancholy: René d’Anjou’s Book of the Love-Smitten Heart (Nicholas Ealy)....Pages 103-129 Front Matter ....Pages 131-131 Narcissus and Trauma: Chrétien de Troyes’s Story of the Grail (Nicholas Ealy)....Pages 133-179 Narcissus and Testimony: Guillaume de Machaut’s Fountain of Love (Nicholas Ealy)....Pages 181-224 Epilogue: Between Je me plaing and Iste ego sum (Nicholas Ealy)....Pages 225-232 Back Matter ....Pages 233-238