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Guillaume de Machaut at the royal court: the function of the author
Fantysová Matějková, Jana
The medieval author eludes both the modern concept of the author and the structuralist concept, because he belongs to a different historical reality: the character of a medieval text, the use of a written record and the way in which a work was disseminated do not correspond to what we consider literature today, and neither the concept of the author nor his status coincide with the modern notion. The origins of modern authorship can be traced as early as the Middle Ages, if we define the author in relation to the text, work and reader, in terms of the status granted to an author by his readers, and also in terms of his subjectivity. Taking as its example the poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut, this paper describes a number of phenomena typical of the Middle Ages, when oral performances and commissions by patrons dominated. It also describes the genesis of the author’s subjectivity, which was formed in relation to his patron and reflects Machaut´s social role.
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