Les Croisés en Orient: la représentation de l'espace dans le cycle de la croisade (review)

The argument of this book is that an emphasis on spatiality structures and differentiates the triptych of La Chanson d'Antioche, Les Chétifs, and La Chanson de Jérusalem within the larger collection of chansons de geste known as the Crusade Cycle. These three poems, it is said, are unique among epics because almost all the action happens in the East, a venue at once strange, forbidding, and alluring. The author sets out in three directions: to study the geography of the crusades as manifest in toponymy, and to give readings of sacred space, and of heroic space. However, the lack of a critical dynamic for thinking spatiality and for distinguishing it from 'temporal' reading often reduces this work to an examination of the texts' descriptions of loci, of their use of the connotations of different spaces, and of the interaction between plot and place. The weakest section is Part I on toponymy, which demonstrates only that descriptions of routes to the East, of towns, and of other sites found there are broadly accurate but also, as in most chansons de geste, quite stylized, because the representation of space is subordinated to the logic of the plot. Part II, on sacred space, draws some interesting conclusions: Jerusalem, the author argues, becomes the subject or even the hero of the songs, and the characters even address it directly. The different states of the city at different times in its history are superimposed, resulting in a confusion of temporality. Mythical, spiritual, and geographic levels are thus mixed. Evocations of recent martyrs then bring us to the present of the crusade, offering a continuity of space that links layers of time, thereby legitimizing the actions of the crusaders and placing them within God's plan. Part III unpicks the functions of mountains, deserts, and plains within the narratives before turning to the exotic Oriental gardens and palaces and finally to the monsters of these far-flung lands. Throughout, the presence of crusade propaganda within portraits of place is brought out with some skill; description of space, we discover, is not ideologically neutral. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the texts in hand are indeed chansons de geste and that they thus adhere to an established form, although they also renew the genre, notably by introducing hagiographical elements. Fittingly, the book closes by urging critics to canonize these captivating works.