Idyll and Emotional Reality at the Dawn of French Romance

Abstract In their attempt to provide a definition of the idyllic genre, readers of the medieval corpus of idyllic romance, from 1913 to our days, have discussed the relevance of such structural data as the lovers’ age and similitude, their readiness to follow a bookish ars amandi or Nature’s call, the patterns of mésalliance, the trials and tribulations of separation, and the notion of a happy end meant to change the face of the world. In order to integrate and synthesize these data, our study proposes a new approach to the idyllic corpus, based on the concept of “emotional reality” and its medieval counterparts.