La Mort le Roi Artu et la nostalgie de l’idéal

Abstract

La Mort le Roi Artu and the Nostalgia of the Ideal Along with the Hellenistic novel and the pastoral novel, the chivalric narrative constitutes one of the three forms of premodern idealism. In close connection with the ineffable anthropomorphism of the novel, the narratives of chivalry distinguish themselves by placing the transcendent source at the heart of the society of men (T. Pavel, La Pensée du roman). The article investigates the part that nostalgia takes in the manufacture of the chivalric and courtly ideal starting from human resources (love, war), according to two principal poetics: the enchantment, the unpredictable, the desire (Yvain, le Chevalier au lion of Chrétien de Troyes) vs. the disenchantment, the irreversible, the regret inherent in the nostalgic charm (La Mort le Roi Artu).