Chrétien de Troyes, il realismo dei sentimenti e la forma “canonica” del romanzo

This article aims to demonstrate that the romances of Chrétien de Troyes establish a canonical form for the genre by placing the description of feelings at the heart of the narrative, to the extent that the truth of the story hinges upon the sincerity of the emotions portrayed. A lexical and rhetorical analysis illustrates Chrétien’s emotional realism, revealing a consistent integration of perception, emotion, and action that makes characters emerge as nuanced individuals, as the environment they navigate becomes a spatial projection of their feelings. Chrétien’s emotional realism relies on empathy: it enables audiences to engage with the human experience of the world as depicted in the romance, and to verify its authenticity by way of comparison with their own emotional lives.