entrelacement

File:Entrelacement in Lancelot-Grail Cycle.png (chapters 53-82)|upright=1.75]]

Entrelacement is the weaving together of multiple narrative strands taking place at the same time by merging and alternating the individual strands to form one combined narrative. There are three main methods through which entrelacement is implemented:

1. Alternation: The narrative is constructed by alternating between the most interesting or 'best' parts of the individual narrative strands of the characters. For example, Person A's point of view is used for the first half of an event, and Person B's point of view is used for the second half.
2. Combination: Two different narrative threads are put together into one combined thread. For example, when Person A meets Person B, they decide to travel together, and subsequently the narrative has only one thread instead of two.
3. Separation: A combined narrative thread is broken, either by ending one thread, or by splitting the threads back into their constituent parts. For example, when Person A and Person B are travelling and they have to leave each other, the narrative threads of the characters separate and the narrative only follows one of the characters.

These three methods together form the general structure of the narrative technique. Each major 'episode' of the narrative is told using alternation, while combination and separation helps bring the narrative from one episode to the next.{{Cite book |last=Brandsma |first=Frank |title=The Interlace Structure of the Third Part of the Prose Lancelot |date=18 February 2023 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-84384-257-6 |page=24-112 |language=en |chapter=Interlace: The Narrative Technique in Lancelot Part 3}}

Perceval, the Story of the Grail by French {{lang|fr|trouvère}} and poet Chrétien de Troyes is considered by literary historians to be the earliest example of entrelacement fully implemented.{{Cite book |last=Frappier |first=Jean |title=Étude sur la 'Mort le roi Artu', roman du XIIIᵉ siècle : dernière partie du Lancelot en prose |year=1936 |location=Geneva |pages=348 |language=fr |quote=Au Moyen Âge, l’emploi du procédé [de l’entrelacement] ainsi que la formule de transition rudimentaire (Le conte cesse de parler d’un tel et parle maintenant de tel autre), ne semble pas antérieur au Perceval de Chrétien de Troyes.}}{{Cite journal |last=Lagomarsini |first=Claudio |title=The Invention of Arthurian Entrelacement and Diagrammatic Chronicles |journal=Medium Ævum |volume=93 |issue=1 |page=71 |quote=Literary historiography usually finds in Chrétien de Troyes’s Conte du Graal (before 1191) the earliest French romance fully implementing the new technique. |via=ProQuest}} In earlier romances by Chrétien, the entrelacement is less intricate and in a rudimentary form (for example in Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart and Eric and Enide).{{Cite journal |last=Lagomarsini |first=Claudio |title=The Invention of Arthurian Entrelacement and Diagrammatic Chronicles |journal=Medium Ævum |volume=93 |issue=1 |pages=70–89 |via=ProQuest}}

Some of the precursors to the technique include Ovid's Metamorphoses and the {{lang|fr|{{interlanguage link|The Life of Saint Alexis|fr|Vie de saint Alexis}}}}.{{Cite journal |last=Chase |first=Carol J. |date=1983 |title=Sur la théorie de l'entrelacement: Ordre et désordre dans le "Lancelot en prose" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/437289 |journal=Modern Philology |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=227–241 |doi=10.1086/391218 |jstor=437289 |issn=0026-8232}}

Entrelacement was a very common technique in the medieval and early modern era. C. S. Lewis stated that entrelacement "dominated European fiction both in prose and verse from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century." Some examples of entrelacement according to Lewis include Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, as well as the poetry of Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso.{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |author-link=C. S. Lewis |title=Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1979 |isbn=9780521055451 |location=Cambridge |language=en |chapter=Edmund Spenser, 1552-99}}

It was extremely common in the Arthurian tradition, such as in the works of Chrétien de Troyes, Layamon, Thomas Malory, Hartmann von Aue and Gottfried von Strassburg. Other medieval epic poetry and romances also used the form, such as the {{lang|gmh|Nibelungenlied}}, the Poetic Edda, and the {{lang|non|Völsunga saga}}.{{Cite journal |last=Harper-Scott |first=J. P. E. |date=2009 |title=Medieval Romance and Wagner's Musical Narrative in the Ring |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ncm.2009.32.3.211 |journal=19th-Century Music |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=211–234 |doi=10.1525/ncm.2009.32.3.211 |jstor=10.1525/ncm.2009.32.3.211 |issn=0148-2076}}

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Category:Literary concepts

Category:Literary terminology

Category:Narrative techniques