Between Sequence and Sirventes: Aspects of Parody in the Troubadour Lyric

Parody marks the troubadour lyric from the outset, informing composition, performance and reception. This ground breaking study moves away from courtliness, the focus of most previous studies, and places troubadour parodic preactice int he context of the social and spiritual debates of 12th and 13th century Occitania. Leglu analyses the complex relationship between troubadour verse and the Aquitanian para-liturgical Latin corpus. She charts the development of a chain of texts linked by a common formal mode derived from this Latin sequence and traces patterns of rewriting, ranging from scurrilous attacks, through playful competition, to recuperation of the sacred content in serious parody.