Really about nothing : Farai un vers de dreit nien by Guilhem de Peitieu as and experiment in poetic subjectivity
2012
Abstract
The article aims at showing how the enigmatic "devinalh" composed by the troubadour Guilhem de Peitieu can be read as a report on a failed attempt to write a totally introspective poem. In the first part the poet creates for himself a dreamy world deliberately disconnected from the real one.
Then he tries to insert a lady into it in order to create a situation suitable for courtly poetry. This action proves to be impossible.
The final riddle of the poem asks the reader to undertake the task of interpretation, open the box of the autistic situation of the author and terminate the experiment.