Ensenhamen
An ensenhamen (Old Provençal pronunciation: lyric) poem associated with the troubadours. As a genre of Occitan literature, its limits have been open to debate since it was first defined in the 19th century. The word ensenhamen has many variations in old Occitan: essenhamen, ensegnamen, enseinhamen, and enseignmen.
The ensenhamen had its own subgenres, such as "conduct literature" that told noblewomen the proper way to comport themselves and "
chivalrous. Besides these were types defining and encouraging courtly love and courtly behaviour, from topics as mundane as table manners to issues of sexual ethics
.
The earliest attestable ensenhamen was written around 1155 by
Raimon Vidal
are other known contributors to the genre.
There were also mock ensenhamens designed to satirise the
Guiraut de Cabreira
(Cabra joglar) are also known to have written this way.
Sources
- Gaunt, Simon; Kay, Sarah, eds. (1999). The Troubadours: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-57473-0.
- Monson, Don A. (1981). Les 'ensenhamens' occitans: essai de definition et délimitation du genre (in French). Paris: Libraire C. Klincksieck. ISBN 2-252-02319-8.
- de Riquer, Martín(1975). Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos (in Spanish). Vol. 1–3. Barcelona: Planeta.