The literary influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine in the long twelfth century

While female power and related issues tend to be problematized throughout medieval French and Occitan literature, the high point of this phenomenon seems to occur during the long twelfth century. The intent of this study is to locate the roots of this phenomenon and trace its effect in the literature of the period. The catalyst for this explosion of interest in issues of female power, speech, and sexuality can be found in the association of various long-standing prejudices or memes about women with Eleanor of Aquitaine, a highly controversial female ruler of the period. By using the various misogynist memes, or units of cultural transmission, in circulation to describe Eleanor of Aquitaine, the chroniclers created what I have termed the "Eleanor memeplex" or mythic Eleanor, who embodied medieval society's deepest fears and anxieties regarding women in power.; The influence of the Eleanor memeplex on three representative twelfth-century texts or groups of texts, namely Chretien de Troyes' Erec et Enide, Marie de France's Lais, and the mixed tensos of the trobairitz, was then identified and elucidated through a series of close textual readings. It was found that each of these texts was heavily influenced by this memeplex, although each made different use of it: thus Chretien de Troyes used it to create two opposing models of women, one made in the mythic Eleanor's image and the other diametrically opposed; Marie de France referred to the memeplex's constituent memes to highlight women's real disempowerment; and the trobairitz, in laying claim to their right to free speech and power, attacked and subverted the various misogynist memes. A fourteenth-century French text, Coudrette's Roman de Melusine , was then examined in an effort to determine the potency of the Eleanor memeplex two hundred years after its creation. It was found that this text used the Eleanor memeplex to demonize women in power.; Conclusions are drawn that by the fourteenth century the Eleanor memeplex, no longer a mere cultural artifact, was serving a political function, in that it provided support for the creation and maintenance of the Salic Law, which barred women from inheriting the French throne.