X MARKS THE SPOT: THE PLACE OF THE FATHER IN CHRETIEN DE TROYES'S CONTE DU GRAAL

The place, name, and image of the father lie at the heart of the Conte du Graal's many enigmas. The romance locates knowledge of the father in an inaccessible space ailleurs (elsewhere). As such, the topos of ailleurs provides both unity and structure to the tensions between word and image, knowledge of self and selfishness, or past and future that inhabit the romance. The article proposes an interpretation in which the need to heal the Fisher King coincides with recovery of the father whose existence is revealed to the hero at the outset of his adventures.