The disguised lover unmasked, from the Roman de Silence to the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi Between recognition scene and gender fluidity

This article examines the denouement of the Roman de Silence, as well as an episode of the Persian epic devoted to the daughter of the Prince of Chach and her lover. It shows how the scenes in which a lover is revealed to have disguised himself as a woman signal the unfinished character of the recognition. Because, despite the reassignation of gender and the sanction that accompanies this, the fluidity of gender is maintained in the two texts, therefore disrupting any attempt to constitute or reconstitute knowledge that is ultimately always found to be fluctuating and uncertain.