"Adventures which Relieved Those Afflicted by Care": Society and the Other

As a way of possibly working towards some understanding of what I see as Marie de France’s core attitudes towards “othering” and the Other (and in order to write my way into this posting), I want to address and juxtapose "Lanval" and "Yonec," the two lais which, perhaps fortuitously, we did not cover yesterday in class. I read these works as mirror images of each other; "Yonec" inverts the plot and characterization of "Lanval" while preserving the same structure and theme. In "Lanval," the “othered” male, the foreign knight forgotten and neglected by the masculine society surrounding him, for whom no one would “have uttered a single regret if misfortune had befallen him,” is approached by the feminine Other in a tangible and fully realized form. Similarly, in "Yonec," the othered female, imprisoned in a tower and completely separated from the encompassing society and its norms, institutions, and power structures, is approached by a representative of the realized Other, this time in masculine form. In both cases, a secret union with this supernatural visitor provides the protagonist, Lanval or “the lady,” with an outlet and a remedy for his or her own, socially-imposed otherness. Also, both protagonists eventually betray the secrecy of their relationship, though they do so without malicious intent and, in the lady’s case, without even volition.

Of course, the outcomes of these stories differ markedly, and it is worth noting how, in "Lanval," the ultimate manifestation of the feminine Other beguiles and disarms the masculine society of Arthur’s court, whereas in "Yonec," the masculine Other poses a profound threat to be met with violent subterfuge. (Although Arthur overreacts as violently to a threat to his sexual possession of his wife as the lord in Yonec does.) In any case, the symmetry of these two lais is richly suggestive in a number of ways.

For example, I found intriguing the hint in "Yonec" that Muldumarec the hawk-knight was as much of an “other” in his own society as the lady is in hers (or Lanval is in his). Dying in his own country, Muldumarec tells the lady, “Flee from here!...There would be such grief here if you were found, and you would be tormented, for my people would know that they had lost me because of my love for you.” Does it go too far beyond the available evidence to posit that Muldumarec is a kind of Guigemar in his world, unable or unwilling to love anyone before the lady-protagonist? (“Yet I could not come to you, nor leave my country, unless you had wished for me,” he informs the lady when first appearing to her.) Perhaps their mutual otherness brings him and the lady together.

Such speculations aside, my point in positing this underlying structure common to "Lanval" and "Yonec" – socially-alienated figure invokes a corresponding image of the Other in a realized and effectual form, forms a relationship with this gender-reversed alternate, unconsciously or unintentionally betrays the relationship, but is in some way ultimately vindicated – is to suggest another interpretation of what, to quote Ines’s post, “facilitates...transformation into an ‘other.’” Janel cogently highlights the formidable difficulties we face in trying to speak of Self and Other in a historical context so very different from our own, but I think she is also correct in maintaining that “certain values of the Self stand as constants.” By the same token, certain markers of the Other or grounds for “othering” likewise stand as constants. Foreigners, outcasts (self-imposed or not), those who cannot or will not participate in some socially-defined norm or practice, those who are excluded from any share in the institutions and power structures controlling them, will always be vulnerable to labeling and dismissal as “the Other.” In "Lanval" and "Yonec," norms and practices, institutions and power structures of the Anglo-Norman world form a pervasive, generally inimical background. Feudalism (the royal apportionment of “wives and lands to all” from which Lanval is unintentionally or deliberately excluded), masculine chivalric society, law courts, landholding, dynasty-building using women as marriageable pawns: all these forces surround and alienate Lanval and the lady, and even when representatives of them individually try to reintegrate these Others, as Gawain and his peers belatedly try to do for Lanval, their efforts yield no result. Society, in other words, facilitates or initiates othering, at least in these two lais.

From this perspective, the incongruity of the naming of "Yonec" makes more sense. Marie titles the poem "Yonec," even though Yonec, as a character, barely makes his presence known until the very end, because Yonec serves, in a sense, as a masculine embodiment of his mother, the nameless female protagonist. He translates her rage and grief into a socio-politically efficacious form. His mother’s death, more so than any of the facts she reveals about his father, motivates Yonec’s act; masculine loyalty plays hardly any part, and the instruments of male legitimacy and authority serve only as tools for redressing the grievances of the feminine Other: “when her son saw that she was dead, he struck off his stepfather’s head, and thus with his father’s sword avenged his mother’s grief.” The lai concludes with the offspring of the Other being vested with normative identity and authority: “Before leaving this place they made Yonec their lord.”

At the beginning of the poem, following the poignant detail of the imprisoned lady “weeping and looking at the sunlight,” Marie has her deliver an impressive tirade against all the societal forces that have brought her to this miserable situation. This speech concludes with what almost seems like a metafictional, self-referential detail, wherein the lady voices her desire for a realization of the very kind of story which Marie writes and in which the lady is a character:

I have often heard tell that in this country one used to encounter adventures
which relieved those afflicted by care: knights discovered maidens to their
liking, noble and fair, and ladies found handsome and courtly lovers, worthy
and valiant men. There was no fear of reproach and they alone could see them.
If this can be and ever was, if it ever did happen to anyone, may almighty God
grant my wish!

In lais like these which the lady considers so relevant to her situation, Marie articulates the tension between Self and Other, inclusion and exclusion, in her society.