Entre l'amor i el dret: l'ús del lèxic feudal a la lírica amorosa medieval catalana i valenciana

The use of feudal vocabulary is the most innovative feature of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Occitan troubadours' love lyric. The Catalan and Valencian poets who continued and reworked this tradition over the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries preserved this convention with varying degrees of fidelity. The aim of this paper is to identify trends in the use of feudal vocabulary in the works of Catalan and Valencian poets, and to interpret these tendencies in the light of contemporary historic developments. The poets’ choices in selecting materials from the previous tradition provide valuable information about their strategies of adaptation
to the requirements of their audiences. This analysis will allow to delimitate similarities and differences between classical troubadour lyric and the works of later Catalan and Valencian poets, an essential step towards the definition of Catalan poetry in the late Middle Ages. The specific identity of this poetic expression has yet to be outlined, since it has traditionally been described in the context of disparaging comparisons with other earlier and contemporary poetic traditions.