Poetic Creation in Jean Froissart's L'espinette amoureuse and Le joli buisson de Jonece

A significant feature of Jean Froissart's writing, whether it be the prose Chroniques or his poetry and dits in verse, is the close identification that exists between author and narrative, life and text. Froissart's role as chronicler and author features strongly in his work; his position as compiler, recorder, and creative writer is an important aspect of his presentation of himself, but in addition, Froissart's voice and his persona infiltrate every level of his writing. The writing of the self and of personal experience into verse narrative cannot, however, simply be seen as producing a fragmentation or proliferation of different aspects of the author/narrator/character figure who then unnerves or frustrates the reader. The poetic form itself is important in conveying a sense of meaning and in shaping the way in which the work is received. Here, Sinclair addresses how ambiguity is created in Froissart's pseudoautobiographical dits amoureux through a simultaneous presentation of experience as both personal and universal by focusing on the Espinette amoureuse (ca. 1369) and the Joli buisson de Jonece (1373), since both are closely concerned with the interrelation of life and poetic creation and, in various ways, extend the notion of experience to the universal.