In the thirteenth-century Old Occitan romance
Le Roman de Flamenca (
Flamenca), the narrator’s function is complicated when a number of characters (whom I call narrating characters) appropriate the narratorial
role by disrupting and manipulating the text using very specific literary techniques. The characters disseminate the plot,
address moral issues, dramatize digressions, create imaginary dramatic scenarios, predict events, and address the audience
directly. On a number of occasions, these narrating characters act “out of character,” appropriate the authorial voice (and
its attendant authority) and add their own subjectivities. Based on the mirroring that occurs between the narrator and the
narrating characters, we should consider
Flamenca as a multi-narratorial text and treat the narrator as an important character rather than privilege him as representing the
authorial voice.
Keywords Occitan literature - 400-1499 Medieval period - Flamenca - narrative voice