Gender and power

This study takes a new look at counsel as a historical and political concept in twelfth-century French and German romance texts. The tradition of the counsellor comes from classical Greek and Roman literary sources. At the center of discussion is the filtering of antique orientations into the feudal organization of authority and hierarchy in medieval romance. The gender of the counsellors is of primary importance in this approach. A corollary is the experience of friendship within and across gender boundaries with significant effects for the perception of power from the point of view of the author and the audience. Anchored around the key figures, the configuration of counsellors and those who require counsel has formative potentials in romance: it reveals contemporary ideological positions of power and dominance in a fictional literary framework, it elucidates the intricate dynamics of interpersonal relationships and demonstrates how they help form the structural fabric of romance.