By couching the narrative in imagery representing aggression (the soldier), Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour manipulates symbols which involve gender aggression with the supposedly innocuous intent of wooing the female. The deceit involved in this rhetoric of amorous conquest is reversed in the ladys Response, where the aggressive narrative is turned back upon itself in a battle of the texts. One of the most powerful and repeated symbols in the bestiary which is involved in the intercourse of texts is the unicorn, prominent in Master Richards text, yet dismissed with brevity in the Lady's. An exploration of the very different agendas which employ the unicorn reveals the articulation of power implicit in these texts. - [Auhor]

Language: English