Medieval Debate Poetry

This dissertation examines literary debates in classical Turkish literature produced during the period XI-XIXth centuries. In the first chapter, the theoretical framework of the subject is tried to be drawn. For this purpose, the meaning of the debate/munazara in lexicon as well as in logic and literature is examined. Besides, the problematic of its being genre or form was argued. To shed light on the latter issue, features of the both were explained.
In the second chapter, explaining the term “debate/munazara” as one of the oldest literary genres, we discuss how Turkish literature was incorporated into this tradition, and debates in world literatures were illuminated. Within this scope, we examine certain debate works in Sumerian, Akkadian, Ancient Egypt, Greek, Syriac, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Latin, English, French and German literatures.
In the third chapter, after the classification of Turkish debates by their protagonists, they were put in chronological order. Each of them was analyzed and summarized. At the end of each category, they were comparated. Additionally, studies related to the debate works were explained.
In the last chapter, in the light of the information provided in the previous chapter, the features of Turkish debate works were determined and classified according to various aspects and some texts that were known as a debate but were not so, were identified. Besides, the general features of the debate works in Turkish folk literature was referred to briefly.
At the end, I added a sample work, a hitherto unstudied Ottoman Turkish debate text by providing its transcription and modern Turkish translation.

You can download the full version of the dissertation via https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/tarama.jsp or feel free to contact me.

Despite its popularity among Early Middle English scholars and scholars of medieval debate literature, The Owl and the Nightingale is relatively inconspicuous in scholarship on medieval race and sexuality. When read alongside later medieval flytings, poetic exchanges of slander focused on the body and its proclivities, the injurious speech in The Owl and the Nightingale operates through racialized and sexualized species division. This article draws on animacy theory and medieval race theory to explore the symbol of the owl-as-Jew in the poem and demonstrates how sexual and racial insult against human beings is filtered through the bodies of animals.

ESPAÑOL
La poesía de debate castellana constituye un corpus rico para el estudio de las tradiciones discursivas que se despliegan en las imágenes y tópicos en ella presentes, y en los recursos retóricos que sus protagonistas ponen en juego. La integración de diversas fuentes textuales –entre las que se encuentran la lírica provenzal, los debates latinos y la poesía goliárdica– hace de estos poemas un punto de confluencia entre tradiciones de carácter popular y letrado, que hablan del modo en que sus impulsores dieron forma a una lengua poética nueva y promovieron el uso del castellano como lengua literaria. Por lo tanto, el propósito de este trabajo será analizar la interacción de las tradiciones textuales antedichas y sus marcas léxicas desde una perspectiva histórico-cultural, y a partir del marco teórico de la pragmática histórica.

ENGLISH

Castilian debate poetry constitutes a rich corpus for the analysis of the discourse traditions that can be found in the images and topoi exploited, and in the rhetorical devices the speakers capitalize on. The integration of diverse textual sources –i.e. Occitan literature, Latin debates and goliardic poetry¬– makes these poems a meeting point of popular and cultivated traditions, that reveal the way in which their promoters shaped a new poetic language and encouraged the use of Castilian as a literary register. Therefore, the purpose of this study will be to analyse the interaction of the textual traditions aforementioned and their lexical markers from a cultural-historical perspective, and through the methodological framework of historical pragmatics.

O debate entre Meen Rodriguiz Tenoiro e Juião Bolseiro, transmitido pelo Cancioneiro
da Biblioteca Nacional (cod. 10991) e pelo Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Vaticana (Vat. Lat. 4803), conclui com duas findas notavelmente deterioradas por erros de cópia. Por este motivo, esse texto é um dos de mais difícil edição dos cancioneiros galego-portugueses. O presente trabalho consiste na análise do excerto em questão, com o objetivo de oferecer uma leitura plausível.

The debate of pleasure-giving substances such as opium, bersh, hashish, boza, wine and coffee is the most written topic in Turkish debate literature. In this genre, these subtances fight for superiority over others by means of personification. Dâfi' al-Huzn is a hitherto unknown link of the genre. This anonym work is the first rewriting of Nidâî's Mubâhasât-ı Mukeyyifât. Dâfi' al-Huzn was rewritten in mathnawi form by Vardarlı Fazlî with the title of Mahzan al-Asrâr. This paper aims to determine what kind of changes can be made in the rewritten works by giving Mahzan al-Asrâr as an example. For this purpose firstly the source text and its rewriting have been introduced , their contents have been illuminated comparatively, the relationship between them has been explained and the place of Dâfi' al-Huzn in Turkish debate literature has been determined. Then, in the case of Mahzan al-Asrâr, how and how much the source text can be changed during the rewriting process has been evaluated under different headings and the findings have been supported by examples from other works. In addition, during these evaluations, the answers to the questions for the purpose of the changes made on the source text and why Dâfi' al-Huzn was transferred into poetry have been sought. Finally, Dâfi' al-Huzn has been transcripted.

As everyone knows, alcoholic drinks, including wine, are forbidden by Islam. Readers of Persian poetry often wonder how is it possible that Persian wine literature is one of the
richest in the world and whether the poets and authors ever address the illicitness of the wine in their works. This article examines how one author, Zangī Bukhārī, presents a catalogue of positive and negative qualities of wine in his Gul u mul (“The
Rose and the Wine”). Through the genre of debate (munāzara), he shows how a courtly audience may have tried to justify the drinking of wine. The article examines the formal generic characteristics of such debates, showing how the form of the debate is rather appropriate to let forbidden objects or ideas, in this case the wine, speak for themselves thus defending their position in an Islamic society. entertaining in is richness in metaphors and imagery used by the wine and the rose to voice their superiority to each other, but it also addresses a rather controversial topic in an uncontroversial style.

This dissertation seeks to reconstruct the development of the literary ‘Soul and Body’ theme over time. This theme is preserved and developed in several medieval English texts, both in prose and verse, dating from the tenth to the fifteenth century. Central to this theme is an opposition between the eternal soul and the decaying body; this opposition was eleborated both in the form of a monologue in which the soul accuses a silent body and in the form of a debate in which the two sides dispute over the responsibility for sin and eternal damnation. The first part of the Introduction offers a brief overview of the previous scholarship, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive treatment of the theme. The Introduction also outlines its origins, which have been traced by nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars to the earliest century of the Christian era in the Mediterranean area. My methodological model for the study of how traditional material was reworked is Ernst Robert Curtius, and his concept of the topos. To analyse in detail how the Soul and Body topos changed over time, I break the topos down into smaller motifs, which constitute its ‘building blocks’. Using this methodological approach, the first chapter proposes a classification of the various ‘Soul and Body’ texts of the Old English period into three groups, which are characterized by the occurrence of several shared motifs. The crystallization of these motifs into a structured and recognized sub-genre in the early Middle English phase is the focus of Chapter 2. The third chapter discusses how this sub-genre became part of the wider genre of medieval debate poetry between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. Finally, the results of the investigation carried out in the present dissertation are summarized in a general conclusion.

This course explores medieval and early Renaissance texts that generated controversy, resistance and debate. We will read the texts in question as well as responses from readers, other authors, and institutions (church, university). We will also look at how practices such as selective translation and rewriting as a form of critique contributed to the dynamic literary traditions of this period. Finally, we will consider how fictional representations of such practices and debates reflect upon the social and intellectual life of literature.

La importancia de las trobairitz como compositoras ha sido muy discutida por los investigadores, especialmente en los trabajos más antiguos, ya que son las primeras muestras de voces de autoras en la literatura medieval en lenguas vernáculas y, en particular, en la lírica trovadoresca, lo que ha favorecido cierta polémica sobre la atribución de algunas composiciones. Un ejemplo de trobairitz cuestionada es Alamanda, cuyo nombre aparece en una composición dialogada con Giraut de Bornelh. En nuestro trabajo nos aproximaremos a este personaje femenino estudiando las distintas referencias que se documentan en otros textos y fijándonos, en particular, en la composición dialogada "S’ie•us qier conseill, bella amia Alamanda", clasificada propiamente como tenson o tenson ficticia, según la identificación de la autora (real o no real).

El análisis de la tenson y el partimen ha sido generalmente relegado en los estudios literarios a aproximaciones simplistas e imprecisas en las que las comparaciones entre tradiciones han estado ausentes. No obstante, el seguimiento y la continuación con la que contaron a partir de la lírica occitana en otras tradiciones (francesa, gallego-portuguesa, italiana y castellana) son factores indicativos del éxito de estas composiciones fuera del ámbito en el que se gestaron y de la recurrencia que los autores hacían a cada una de ellas en todas las áreas literarias mencionadas.
En nuestro trabajo realizamos una comparativa formal y temática de algunas composiciones dialogadas cuyo tema persiste en varios de los dominios literarios estudiados, ya sea con las mismas características o con pequeños cambios que enriquecen la variedad conceptual de las modalidades disputativas de la lírica medieval románica. Nuestra propuesta revela que las modalidades dialogadas fueron cultivadas de forma semejante en tradiciones diferentes.

A análise da tenson e o partimen foi xeralmente relegada nos estudos literarios a aproximacións  simplistas e imprecisas nas que as comparacións entre tradicións estiveron ausentes. Con todo, o seguimento e a continuación coa que contaron a partir da lírica occitana noutras tradicións (francesa, galego-portuguesa, italiana e castelá) son factores indicativos do éxito destas composicións fóra do ámbito no que se xestaron e da  recorrencia que os autores facían a cada unha delas en todas as áreas literarias mencionadas.
No noso traballo realizamos unha comparativa formal e temática dalgunhas composicións dialogadas cuxo tema persiste en varios dos dominios literarios estudados, xa sexa coas mesmas características ou con pequenos cambios que enriquecen a variedade conceptual das modalidades disputativas da lírica medieval románica. A nosa proposta revela que as modalidades dialogadas foron cultivadas de forma semellante en tradicións diferentes.

As everyone knows, alcoholic drinks, including wine, are forbidden by Islam. Readers of Persian poetry often wonder how is it possible that Persian wine literature is one of the richest in the world and whether the poets and authors ever address the illicitness of the wine in their works. This article examines how one author, Zangī Bukhārī, presents a catalogue of positive and negative qualities of wine in his Gul u mul (“The Rose and the Wine”). Through the genre of debate (munāzara), he shows how a courtly audience may have tried to justify the drinking of wine. The article examines the formal generic characteristics of such debates, showing how the form of the debate is rather appropriate to let forbidden objects or ideas, in this case the wine, speak for themselves thus defending their position in an Islamic society. entertaining in is richness in metaphors and imagery used by the wine and the rose to voice their superiority to each other, but it also addresses a rather controve...

La font mes que probable de l'enunciat del debat entre el Princep de Viana i Corella seria una d'aquelles demandes d' amor d' origen frances. L' existencia d' una petita col·leccio de demandes d' amor catalanes contribueix a confirmar-ne la popularitat i difusio i a comprovar adscripcions a determinades tradicions culturals.