Les fonctions du narrateur dans les romans médiévaux en vers

Abstract

This study of medieval narratology tries to apply Maingueneau’s and Rabatel’s theories of enunciative linguistics to three Old French romances (Amadas et Ydoine, Cligès and Béroul’s Tristan). The narrator is involved in the story he is telling by multiple metalepses. He draws his narratees’ attention, he underlines and comments on the process of storytelling and he brings to light the structure and the organization of the story by rhetorical formulas. These can be analyzed with linguistic tools, namely the functions of language defined by Jakobson and the functions of the narrator defined by Genette. The first part is dedicated to narrative and testimonial functions (how does the narrator affirm his presence?), the second deals with phatic and conative functions (how does he communicate with his narratees?), the third concerns the directing function (how is the story structurally organized?). The reception is always guided by the medieval narrator.