Le Tristan de Thomas et ses faces. Promenades inférentielles et différentielles
Thomas’s Tristan and its Faces. Inferential and Differential Journeys

Summary/Abstract: Writing about Thomas d'Angleterre and his Roman de Tristan is far from being unexpected. On the contrary, reading this legendary love story from a pragmatic point of view is quite a challenge to medievalist criticism. This paper proposes a unifying approach drawing upon two theoretical frameworks: possible worlds in textual pragmatics and interactional socio¬linguistics. Under this unifying framework, the excerpt from Thomas’ poem written in Old French is given the chance of a revealing revival. The embracing vision is that of Umberto Eco's Model Reader and readership theory; whereas at the interpersonal level of investigation is approached from the sociolinguistic perspective, through Stephen Levinson and Penelope Brown's face theory. Our study is intended as a journey to the deep Tristan world: a quest of love in pragmatic attire.

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