The hidden optics of medieval French literature

Description

This dissertation examines the interplay between medieval French literature and contemporaneous theories of vision. The history of visual theories during this time is obscure, due in large part to the absence of explicitly scientific treatises on the subject prior to the thirteenth century. The history of optics for this age thus stands in stark contrast to the literary and cultural flourishing of the so-called "Renaissance of the Twelfth Century." This dissertation shows that the received history of visual theories belies its true richness and that the twelfth-century Renaissance can only be properly understood in light of the interanimation of science and literature. The history of science should not serve as a master narrative that explains literary expression. The "Introduction" to this dissertation describes the use of such a narrative as anachronistic in one of two ways: either by dismissing medieval theories of vision as derivative of antiquity, or by promoting such theories as surprisingly modern. Chapter One, "Medieval Theories of Vision," analyzes the historiography of twelfth-century visual theories using this description of anachronism. It provides an extended commentary on Plato's theory of vision and its medieval reception. Chapter Two, "Getting the Blues in Medieval French Literature," insists on the roles language and literature play in the transmission of visual theory. It is argued that medieval color terms resist translation, necessitating an interdisciplinary exploration of medieval color naming if we are to understand medieval vision. Chapter Three, "Vision According to Chrétien de Troyes," concludes with three related studies on this twelfth-century French writer. By resisting the assimilation of his poetics to mere classical allusion or to scientific apology, we can begin to see the unique and nuanced understandings of vision he generates in his works.