Du rêve idyllique au leurre courtois

Abstract

The Dit de la Pastoure (1403), a narrative that was probably written for Charles I d’Albret, relates the love story of a shepherdess and a mighty lord in a disenchanted manner. In this text, Christine de Pizan does not merely transfer her experience as a widow into the pastoral world but offers a reflection on the function of literature and the status of the writer at court : her vision is the opposite of that of Guillaume de Machaut. Indeed, she denounces the discrepancy between an ideal made of pastoral and courtesy and the social reality of her time, as well as her personal desires. As the songs of the shepherdess unwind, the Dit sheds critical light on lyrical tradition. It also questions narrative traditions : through its progressive dysphoria, the text rejects the playful tone of the pastourelle that it seems to adopt at first. The text also parodies the pastoral ideal and leaves behind the roman idyllique, as in the love story of Pâris and Sénonné that presents a pessimistic variant and serves as a guide for reading the whole narrative. At best, the (pastoral, mythological or love) fiction offers a short moment of escape ; in the worst case it is a dangerous lure. In the end, the Dit de la Pastoure leads to an acknowledgement of failure : it turns out to be impossible to overcome obsolete models of writing and to link idyll to real life.

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