De X-factor van de Arturroman

Emotions may well have been the X-factor of the success of Arthurian romances in the vernacular from the late 12th century onwards. The texts present a wider range of emotions than, for instance, the ‘chansons de geste’, they describe far more emotions, and they do so in a way that allows the audience to engage emotionally with the characters’ feelings of joy, anxiety or shame, as a series of examples from Chrétien de Troyes’ Erec et Enide demonstrates. Modern neurological insights in the workings of our brain when presented with emotions help us understand this sharing, mirroring process. The medieval storytellers intuitively catered to these processes, making their stories attractive emotional experiences for the listeners.