Courtly Love and the Representation of Women in the Lais of Marie de France and the Coutumes de Beauvaisis of Philippe de Beaumanoir

This interdisciplinary, cultural perspective on the relation of courtly love and the representation of women in Marie de France's Lais puts the discourse of courtly love and its image of women in the Lais into a dialogue with the historical representation of women in the Coutumes de Beauvaisis in order to understand better the discursive space available for the representation of women. Despite of the valorization of women in the courtly love discourse, the space to speak of women is very similar and very limited in both the Lais and the Coutumes. Marie de France nonetheless leverages this limited space to authorize her own poetic production.