origin – In the first chapter from this reading Menocal makes it obvious from the outset that the origins of the modern vernacular lyric has a much debated history. One in which many Europeans theorists have accounted for the rise of courtly love poetry as a phenomenon and ignore the elements that were almost certainly intertwined with that of literature from Andalusian, Hispano-Arab influences. The arabic precursors of the troubadour poetry exhibit many of the common themes such as unrequited love and the role of gender. But the unwillingness of western scholars to give credit where it is due has led to a constant debate between those who support the Arabist theory and those who refute it; creating what Menocal refers to as, “…the problems of the origins and formal characteristics of the vernacular lyric.” Menocal both questions and condemns the nearsighted views of western […]
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