Parler dulcement d’amur

In the so-called “long end” of the novel by Thomas d'Angleterre, Isolde, coming too late, looks at the lifeless body of her beloved and articulates an impossible hypothesis: if she had arrived on time, she would have saved the life of Tristan and would have spoken to him – dulcement - about their love. Even if only hypothetically, Isolde obtains with her last words the role that is traditionally attributed to the male lead: that of singer of his story, narrator of the Tristan parable. For this specimen lover the perfect picture of the love story is a combination of kisses and narrative, embraces and memory. Love is contemplated as a narrative condition. To love someone means to recount one's love, to imagine oneself as a character, to inscribe oneself in a story. Love is an act of trust, without therefore being denied as an act performed by bodies, an event that unfolds between two existences.

About the Author
Teodoro Patera is a researcher at the Georg-August University of Gottingen. He graduated in Literature at Tor Vergata University of Rome, and specialising in Medieval Studies at the University of Geneva. He also received his PhD in Linguistic, Philological and Literary Sciences at the University of Macerata.