Actitudes frente a los ideales éticos corteses en la lírica castellana y catalanovalenciana de los siglos XIV y XV

Catalan-Valencian love poetry of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and cancionero Castilian poetry are not only linked by geographical and temporal bonds, but also share the same origins: both are heirs, each one in its own way, to the poetic tradition of Provençal troubadours. However, some of the characteristic features of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries’ Catalan-Valencian poetry involve a revision and a discussion of some of the fundamental ideas in the courtly love code. In some cases, poets even strip courtly ideals of their original ennobling power. The starting point of this paper is the acknowledgement of such attitudes among Catalan and Valencian poets. The aim of this essay is to identify the possible concurrence of such topics in Castilian poetry, in order to draw an outline of similarities and differences between the Catalan-Valencian and the Castilian poetic traditions in the treatment of conventional courtly love motifs. To this end, text analysis is carried out around three main topics: the lover’s attitude towards contemporary courtly love habits, the image of the courtly lover, and the presence of other men –potential rivals for the lover– within poetic fiction. Finally, the results of this comparative exercise are assessed in connection with the political and social context of the time.