Provençal literature

Provençal literature covers literary compositions originally written in the Provençal dialect of Occitan (Languedoc), an ancient language primarily spoken in France, Italy, and Spain. A large measure of existing Provençal literature is historical, with the majority of the language’s enduring classical works dating to the High Middle Ages (ca. 1000–ca. 1300).

Though original literary production in the Provençal dialect slowed to a trickle after the European Renaissance (ca. 1400–ca. 1600), Occitan authors continued Provençal’s rich literary traditions by composing new works, if in limited numbers. A Provençal-focused linguistic revival effort occurred in the mid-eighteenth century, leading to the 1854 founding of the Felibrige, an organization dedicated to preserving literary Provençal. The Felibrige inspired a localized but impassioned restoration of the Provençal literary tradition, with a new generation of Provençal-language poets and authors emerging in its wake.

Background

Occitan belongs to the Romance language group, which includes multiple European tongues descended directly from Colloquial Latin. Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian are the most widely spoken Romance languages of the contemporary era. Occitan has six main dialects: Provençal, Alpine, Auvergne, Gascon, Languedocian, and Limousin.

Provençal is indigenous to the Provence region of southeastern France. It flourished regionally in France for centuries as a vernacular and literary dialect. The troubadours, an influential class of lyric poets, musicians, and performers who occupied high-profile roles in the popular culture of the High Middle Ages, composed and performed their works in Provençal. The Provençal dialect was also extensively used in the literary poetry of the same era, with scholars noting that Provençal was the dominant dialect used in Occitan literature of the Middle Ages.

During the early thirteenth century, political rivalries between northern and southern factions in France began to impact Occitan in general and Provençal specifically. With northern-based factions consolidating influence over southern France by 1230, French made increasing inroads in traditionally Provençal-speaking regions, gradually eroding Occitan’s profile as a dominant regional language in France.

In 1539, King Francis I (1494–1547) of France issued the Edict of Villers-Cotterets, which institutionalized the langue d’oïl (Medieval French) as the sole official tongue of the French administration. Linguists and historians trace the decline of Occitan in general and Provençal in particular with the Edict of Villers-Cotterets and its enforcement, as it facilitated the ascendancy of French as the dominant language of France. Later major developments, including colonial success and cultural glory under King Louis XIV (1638–1715) and the French Revolution (1789–1799), attached a growing sense of national identity to the French language. Provençal continued to recede in the wake of these influences, largely becoming confined to small regional pockets of France.

The 1854 establishment of the Felibrige and the subsequent work of poet Frédéric Mistral (1830–1914) buoyed Provençal to a revival in the late nineteenth century. Mistral was honored with the 1904 Nobel Prize in literature for his original poetic compositions in Provençal and his lexicographical work in the Provençal dialect, which established a new set of standardized orthographic conventions. However, Mistral’s work took place alongside a campaign to marginalize regional and minority languages in France, which began around the turn of the twentieth century and included prohibitions on the teaching of Occitan in French public schools. Despite these policies, Occitan persisted as a symbol of regional heritage and culture. In 1999, France signed the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, officially recognizing and providing protection measures for Occitan and its dialects.

In the twenty-first century, Occitan survives as a regional language with small pockets of speakers concentrated in the southern areas of Western Europe, including France, Monaco, Italy, and Spain. Occitan holds official language status in Catalonia, an autonomous region located within Spain. Using 2018 data, Minority Rights Group International’s World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples estimates the number of Occitan speakers to be approximately 600,000 fluent speakers and 1.6 million additional speakers of varying proficiency levels. Estimates of the number of people who speak the Provençal dialect of Occitan are difficult to ascertain, though most speakers live in the southeastern regions of France, Italy, Spain, and Monaco.

Overview

The oldest surviving literary works in the Provençal dialect date to about the tenth century, while the poems produced by William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony (1071–1127) comprise the earliest noteworthy beginnings of the Provençal literary tradition. Poetry persisted as the primary Provençal literary form during the High Middle Ages, but Provençal works from the High and Late Middle Ages (ca. 1300–ca. 1500) also included prose, drama, biographies, histories, and technical works.

Original literary production in Provençal waned considerably with the introduction of the Edict of Villers-Cotterets, but remained robust enough to form a continuous bridge from its origins and peak during the High Middle Ages to the contemporary era. Mistral’s work functioned to restore Provençal as a language of literary interest, and figures aligned with the original Felibrige movement continued to publish works in Provençal until the post-World War II (1939–1945) era. Poetry persists as a leading genre of modern Provençal literature.

Provençal Literature of the High Middle Ages

Classical Provençal literature of the High Middle Ages is strongly associated with the troubadours. The troubadours, who worked in Provençal, exerted a powerful influence on Medieval European popular culture both in and beyond France. Notably, the troubadours had limited freedom of speech permissions that allowed them to comment on political affairs, though they primarily limited their poetic subjects to courtly love. Courtly love was a common trope in Medieval literature, with its classic expression involving a chivalrous knight and a lady of high social standing who was married or otherwise romantically unavailable. Traditional codes of honor prevented the courtly lovers from consummating their relationship, but the knight protagonists in tales of courtly love would nonetheless go to great lengths to protect and defend the idealized subjects of their affection.

Provençal literature also took other forms during the High Middle Ages, including long-form poems, adventure romances, and works of narrative prose. Beyond William IX, major figures from the High Middle Ages era of Provençal literature whose works have survived into the present include Marcabru (born ca. 1130-1148), a troubadour whose biographical details have largely been lost to history, along with Guirand le Roux (ca. 1100–ca. 1150), Bernard of Ventadorn (ca. 1130–ca. 1200), and Peter of Auvergne (ca. 1240–1304).

Decline and Revival

Provençal had already been in decline when the Edict of Villers-Cotterets was issued. Consequently, relatively few surviving works of note from the Late Middle Ages through the nineteenth-century Provençal revival. Poetry persisted as a primary literary form during this period, with religion-themed compositions and works of verse in the didactic tradition being dominant. Other surviving works mainly focus on the literary and rhetorical arts but also include religious dramas.

As Provençal continued to decline, literary production continued but at a slow rate. Didactic poetry remained a prominent form, with Provençal poets and authors also beginning to develop a thematic preoccupation with the physical and cultural landscapes of France’s Provençal-speaking regions.

The Felibrige-led revival movement inspired new generations of Provençal poets and authors, with Felibrige founder Joseph Roumanille (1818–1891) and Mistral emerging as the movement’s leading figures. Mistral’s works have garnered significant critical acclaim and scholarly attention, both for their linguistic significance and elevated literary quality.

Modern and Contemporary Provençal Literature

During the early decades of the twentieth century, a succession of Provençal poets and authors who emerged as part of the Felibrige movement earned recognition for their literary efforts. Most were poets, though both Mistral and Joseph D’Arbaud (1874–1950) worked in prose forms and are credited with reviving Provençal prose after centuries of inactivity. The Felibrige tradition continued after World War II, mainly in the poetry arena. These modern Provençal poets distinguished themselves and the dialect’s established traditions by moving away from preoccupations with symbols of Provençal culture and instead composing works more focused on subjective and personal themes.

Additional forms of contemporary Provençal literature include the short story, which was favored by Roumanille and earned a wide following in the Provençal cultural community, along with novellas and novels. A 1954 review of modern Provençal literature published in the Books Abroad literary journal noted that the number of Provençal novellas and novels produced since the beginning of the Felibrige movement exceeded the cumulative total of centuries prior. Provençal drama has remained relatively rare, though some—mainly in the comedy genre—became critically and commercially successful during the postwar period. Jean-Luc Domenge (1960- ) is a contemporary author who has published short stories and essays in Occitan. His works tackle contemporary social and political issues through a Provençal cultural lens. Srge Bec (1933- ) is a contemporary author whose plays and poems have made important contributions to the Occitan literary world, and Robèrt Lafont’s (1923-2009) works made a lasting impact on the Provençal literary catalog, often looking into complicated ideas of language and identity. 

Bibliography

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