ORIENTALISM

The Orient provides a stage upon which the West can act thins out and resolve issues.
Fantasies and sceneries may be projected onto an Oriental setting where it would
otherwise be impossible to penetrate them. The opinion of the West with the regards
the East was one of extremes and opposites. It was on the one hand very desirable and
attractive but on the other hand it was terrifying, so whilst it may beckon us, it also
repels.

Floire and Blanchefleur was written in the 12th Century when there was a great
interest in the North East and Europe. There was some contact through trade and the
war, the Crusades. The novel is set in Spain when the country was under Moorish
rule. It is set in the distant past, around 400 years before it was actually written.
Supposedly Floire and Blanchefleur are the grandparents of Charlemagne who was
the Emperor in the 800s so we can assume that the text refers to a time in the 700s. No
doubt for a twelfth century audience, it was like us watching a film like Shakespeare
in love, with the same period of time elapsed and the same sense of did this happen,
perhaps this should have happened!
At that time, the Iberian Peninsula was under Moorish rule. On his father’s side
Charlemagne’s grandfather, Charles Martel was famous for having defeated the
Moors; the question then is why on his mother’s side is he given such obscure,
grandparents such as Floire and Blanchefleur.

The Moors were tolerant of other religions, so that Christians were allowed to travel
through the territory to get to pilgrimage sites such as Santiago de Compostella. Yet,
whilst it was not therefore, completely unfamiliar territory, there was a strong desire
to drive out the Moors. The Iberian peninsular was thus a concentrated version of the
cross- cultural conflicts and tension found around the Med. Spain is evidently not part
of the Orient but is portrayed in an oriental guise as an opulent country.
The Orient influenced western art and music, as were certain goods, which were
imported, and various scientific leanings- the teachings of Aristotle came to the
Western world via the East. Thus the Islamic world had a lot to offer but at the same
time, Medieval Christendom saw them as interlopers and was seen as the wrongful
rulers- despite the fact that they had conquered the Holy Land in the 7TH –8TH century.
It was thought that it should be Christian, because after all, Christianity had originated
from the Holy Lands and should therefore be under Christian rule. Therefore, there
was a double vision with regards Islam: on the one hand it was replete with what the
West wanted, but on the other hand, it was considered illegitimate.

How is Islamic Kingdom portrayed?

The East is portrayed as utterly opulent, wealthy and fabulous. Whilst they seem
relatively kind and treat Christian captives fairly well, allowing them to maintain their
Christian faith, there is undoubtedly an air of cruelness, but more importantly, magic
e.g. Tomb.

Floire and Blanchefleur are born on Palm Sunday, in this test; the Queen is told that it
is the Christian holiday and so Floire and Blanchefleur, the Easter lily, are both named
after a Christian holiday.
They both study Latin and have their own private language so that they could secretly.
It is as if they are on their own French Island in Islamic Spain.
They are made to seem like identical twins, same birth, same language, mistaken for
the same person (passage3). So whilst are not related as one is French and one
Moorish, but they are seen to be. Perhaps this can be explained if we believe Floire’s
parents to be indigenous Iberians who had converted to Islam- although the text is
silent on this. There is then no middle ground, either we see them as identical twins
or we see that there is an absolute abyss of difference between them.

What about their love?

We can never be quite sure if they are too different or too similar. On the one hand,
they are brother and sister who have slept in the same bed since birth so when their
love assumes erotic overtones, the reader may well be shocked, yet on the other hand
their cultural and social differences may seem insurmountable. Also we have to think
about the implication of Floire’s being so similar to Blanchefleur, the French audience
would surely be shocked that an Islamic boy can be so like a French girl. Is the
suggestion then that Floire is like Spain, that he is at the same time too foreign and
exotic for something so close to home, but too foreign to be close.

Popular pilgrimage through Moorish Spain was dangerous. Area where different
religions came into contact. Perhaps underlying worry that the French girl may lose
her French identity, that Christianity may be subsumed into Islam.

As Floire penetrates the Eastern World we forget about his Oriental roots. He is
simply a resourceful hero who tries to win over the Emir in order to have his Love
returned to him and naturally the reader both associates and sympathises with him,
which is quite alarming considering he is an Islamic Prince. The East is in fact alien to
him as is the harem with its cruel and capricious power structures. Floire is thus a
Western hero and moreover BF’s companion, Gloris, is the daughter of a German
Duke- like they have set up their own little Western cosmos. It is as if Floire has
always been a Western Prince and the contrast with the truly exotic East helps this. He
escapes through charm, people are moved by his love and it is this, which finally
allows him to escape death. He bribes and charms, but never resorts to violence. This
emotional and intellectual way of winning over people is perhaps more Western than
Eastern- Islam at times renowned for its cruelty. This idea that Love wins over the
East plays up to the Western fantasy that French love is so compelling that it
captivates anyone who witnesses it. The Emir converts to Western culture because of
it- he agrees to abandon polygamy and embrace monogamy and marry Gloris. So
although he doesn’t convert his religion, it is none the less a victory for Roman
Catholic marriage and therefore the West.

Polygamy is in fact an example of a Western Controversy being put into an exotic

setting. Serial polygamy was a serious issue in Western Europe, the Church in conflict
with the aristocracy over it. The church had to struggle to impose the idea that
marriage was for life. This was key, whoever controlled marriage controlled feudal
system, wealth, power and land. It was thus a thorny issue and an ideal problem to be
dealt with on the Eastern stage. The solution is obvious, monogamy and can be safely
expounded as the solution without admitting that the problem relates not in fact to
Islam but to Christianity.

The ending is interesting because on the one hand Floire says that he will embrace
Western religion and Western culture because of his love and is not worried by his
conversion. On the other hand, he kills those who do not convert. Thus there is still
this element of cross-cultural tension that can never be fully suppressed which is
hinted at by this violence. Thus the ending is circular, entertains the possibility of
peaceful coexistence, which causes cross-cultural barriers to cease, but at the same
time, and resorts to violence.

Lineage of Charlemagne
It is only the maternal line that is open to fantastical development as the patriarchal
line was firmly established and it was obviously the patriarchal line that secured his
position as Emperor. The paternal lineage of Charlemagne is strong with warriors
such as Charles Martel, whilst the maternal lineage is dominated by triumph over
danger through wit and charm and ingenuity. Floire doesn’t seem to fit the paternal
line, much more like the maternal line with his beauty and his ingenuity. Perhaps the
invented maternal line thus ideally completes the brutal and militant paternal line.
Thus Charlemagne is the realisation of the dream of the unity of European units-
formed from both the Christian side and the Islamic side. His birth represented
impossible cultures being woven together and certainly, through his reign, we see that
he did unify Europe and no preceding rule ever achieved such unity.