Provençal Literature

Provençal Literature, vernacular Latin literature written in southern France from about the 9th to the 15th century.

The earliest attempts at composition in the Provençal language probably were made by priests and monks in the 9th century. In order to arouse the religious sympathies of the people, they composed, or translated from the Latin into the vulgar idiom, prayers, hymns, pious tales, allegories, and legends of saints. At the end of the 11th century Provençal poetry was greatly stimulated by the religious wars of the Crusades and the introduction of the institution of chivalry.

Provençal literature was essentially poetic. Its prose works are of little importance; later, in the 14th and 15th centuries, prose works became more numerous and included scientific, juridical, philological, and other works. Drama was not cultivated. The only productions that might come under drama are pieces on pious subjects in dramatized form, such as the Mystery of the Passion and the Marriage of the Virgin.

Poetry of the Provençal troubadours began appearing in the early 12th century and reached its fullest expression in three poets writing at the end of the century: Bertran de Born, Arnaud Daniel, and Guiraut de Bornelh. Within just a few generations this poetry developed into a complicated art form so perfect technically that in the 13th century Provençal was considered by some experts to be the most suitable language for lyric poetry.

In this poetry the lady, usually aristocratic and married, is separated from her lover (the poet) for various social, geographic, or even psychic reasons; the poet, in singing of his love, tries to reach an overwhelming sentiment, which he calls joie (“joy, happiness”). Provençal poetry expresses the ethic of courtly love, a sensuous love quite opposed to the traditional Christian concept.

The two distinguishing characteristics of Provençal versification are the rhyme and the syllabic accent. The great number of final syllables of the same sound in the declensions and conjugations of the language offered great ease of rhyming. With the war against the Albigenses in the 13th century and the establishment of French domination in the south, Provençal poetry began to decline. In the following centuries few Provençal works were worthy of notice. In the 19th century, however, a new poetic activity grew up, beginning with the poet Jacques Jasmin, and after him Frédéric Mistral, a poet of great genius and one of the founders of the Le Félibrige, a society dedicated to reviving the use of Provençal; Théodore Aubanel; and others. Poetic festivals have been introduced to aid the movement, and in 1993 the French government, recognizing the importance of regional culture, instructed state schools to begin teaching Provençal and other regional languages.