Generic Topic Two

Troubairitz

Women of the Medieval Southern France were not completely subordinates in comparison to men. For instance, during this time, women often were left in charge of manors or estates in the absence of their husbands and sons, who were off fighting in the crusades. More importantly, women had one key advantage over men in that almost all women of nobility, yet only first-born sons, destined to be heirs, were granted extensive training in literacy, while younger sons were deprived of such intellectual opulence (Paden, 1989). Even though the intentions behind teaching women how to read were tied to their ability to study pious scriptures, women of the time also implemented their literary skills in their own compositions of troubadour-style poetry, achieving the recognition of their peers and were thereby dubbed as troubairitz.

Bogin (1976) stated that the troubairitz were the wives and daughters of the lords of Occitania, the cradle of troubadour and troubairitz culture.

Paden asserted that, as opposed to the male troubadours, troubairitz wrote frankly instead of artistically out of the need for their raw expression of ideas. While the work of troubadors focused on the subject of courtly love, the subject matter of troubairitz poetry conversely attacked the principles of courtly games. The aristocratic troubairitz were in and of themselves the inspiration for - as well as the subject of - the troubadour poetry. In troubairitz poetry, fanciful desires were not addressed, nor did the troubairitz express any wishes to be desired by their male counterparts, the troubadours. The troubairitz did not write in the persona of a knight like the troubadours. Rather, troubairitz wrote expressly as themselves, making the work of each troubairitz unique. The language of the troubairitz was direct, unambiguous, and personal. Compared to the troubadours, the troubairitz approached their lovers more directly in their poems and referred mostly to events of the past, perhaps because they had already been married off for monetarily gainful purposes and had lost their chance of finding true love.

The model of marriage

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