TEL ROI, TEL SÉNÉCHAL: ARTHUR COMME ANTIHÉROS DANS LES ROMANS DE CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES
LIKE KING, LIKE SENESCHAL: ARTHUR AS AN ANTIHERO IN THE ROMANCES OF CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES

Summary/Abstract: In the first medieval chivalric romances, those written by Chrétien de Troyes, an ancient Welsh hero, Cei, appears as seneschal Keu, a churlish character whose behaviour is anything but chivalrous. Clearly, he is no longer a hero, but he is still amongst the “good ones”. Because of his ambiguity, we might consider him as an antihero. However, a number of scholars have remarked that the character of king Arthur himself is far from the supposed ideal image. After a brief analysis of the attributes, functions and configurations of the characters, we propose the hypothesis that king Arthur and Keu are actually linked: they are an antiheroic duo, which means that Arthur is opposed to the main character, most likely on an ideological basis, and this in a rather hidden way, Arthur being represented mostly as a passive character. This makes seneschal Keu the active materialization of this opposition.

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