On the particular devotion of an «sloppy» pen for an «exceptional ingenuity»: an interpretation of the «Cicle dels rams» by Francesc Fontanella

Abstract

The present work is the first monographic critical approach to the Cicle dels rams, a set of 29 poetic letters that Francesc Fontanella wrote in Roussillon during his maturity years. It is divided into six sections. The first one is dedicated to identifying and delimiting the cycle. The second is a brief description of the texts, which reflects both its formal aspects and its content, and points out the elements, the characters and the recurring situations throughout the cycle that provide it with a sense of unity. The third section analyzes the love discourse of the texts, with particular emphasis on their uniqueness in the fontanellan love lyrics. The fourth section argues that the texts, based on a probably real biographical circumstance —lthe convalescence of a lady—l must be read as literary pieces designed to entertain, and deals with analysing the different strategies that are mobilized with this purpose: humor, wonder and enigma. In the last section, a proposal for the dating of the cycle is exposed, based on a series of indications extracted from the texts and, finally, the evidence presented is used to build an overall reading of the cycle.