Villon's Last Will: Language and Authority in the TestamentVillon studies have traditionally emphasized the documentary and didactic value of the Testament, concentrating on problems of historical referentiality. It is assumed that the work has a significant autobiographical element and that it has much to tell us about life in fifteenth-century Paris. The Testament has thus been avidly exploited by historians of the period and its interest as a document is well-established. There have, however, been few attempts to show why the text is interesting as literature. Tony Hunt's present study concentrates exclusively on the textual strategies of the Testament, in particular on rhetorical techniques involving dialogue and irony. Villon's Last Will views the Testament as ironic from start to finish, and the main objects of the irony are identified as language and authority. The dissolution of meaning, authority, and even authorial identity are seen to be the principal results of the poet's rhetoric. Tony Hunt's close reading of the text has produced a lively and well-informed commentary, full of fresh insights. |
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Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Writing and the Fragmentation of Authority | 13 |
Praise and Blame | 34 |
Copyright | |
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allusion ambiguity amours antiphrasis antiphrastic apparent argument association audience authority Ballade beginning Belle bien bishop called Charles clear concerned conclusion contrast course criticism curse death device dialogism Dieu example expression fact fait figure final Fortune François Villon French further give given grant Guillaume heart homme identity indicates interpreted involves ironic irony Jean known Lais language litotes maistre meaning ment moral mort n'est nature never notion opening opposition Paris phrase play poem poor possible povre Villon present question quoy reference reflected repetition rhetorical riens Roman Rose seems sense sexual sort stanza suggests Testament testator testator's theme Thibault thought tion tort tout voices whilst whole women writing written