6 - Dressing for Success: How the Heroine's Clothing (Un)Makes the Man in Jean Renart's Roman de la Rose

Summary

Jean Renart's thirteenth-century Roman de la Rose recounts the story of the youthful German emperor Conrad, who enjoys life and does not want to settle down and marry. His minstrel tells him about Guillaume and his beautiful sister, Lïenor. Conrad falls in love at the description, calls Guillaume to court, and arranges to marry Lïenor sight unseen. A seneschal, jealous of Guillaume's favor with the emperor, reveals a secret about the rose-shaped birthmark on Lïenor's thigh, suggesting intimate knowledge of her. The marriage is called off, and everyone at court is greatly upset. Lïenor goes to court to prove her innocence. The seneschal is punished, and the marriage is celebrated. In his preface, Jean also claims an important innovation in his composition: the inclusion of lyric poems, skillfully interwoven into the text.

But this text is fraught with hermeneutic minefields. Whether scholars debate the title, date, authorship, narrative lines, characters, language, or lyric insertions, the Rose rapidly eludes attempts to pin down any one, clear meaning. This study suggests another reading of these characters and the author's plan for his romance as exemplified by the poet's extensive use of clothing. The characters in this slippery text engage in acts typical of romance plots (for example, the search for a bride, adventures, chivalrous behavior), but they function on another level as well: The characters play with and play on both the gender and generic stereotypes of romance, creating a story that is ironic, parodic, serious, and subversive all at once.