Partimen

The partimen (Occitan: [partiˈmen, paʀtiˈmeⁿ]; Catalan: partiment [pərtiˈmen, paɾtiˈmen(t)]; also known as partia or joc partit) or in French jeu parti (plural jeux partis) is a genre of Occitan and Old French lyric poetry composed between two troubadours, a subgenre of the tenso or cobla exchange in which one poet presents a dilemma in the form of a question and the two debate the answer, each taking up a different side. It was especially popular in poetic contests. See also Torneyamen.

A debate or dialogue in the form of a poem. According to Guilhem Molinier, the author of Las leys d'amors, a 13th-century treatise on how to write poetry in the style of the troubadours, there is a clear difference between a partimen and a tenso: in a partimen the first speaker presents a problem with two possible solutions, leaving his opponent the choice of which solution to defend while taking it upon himself to defend the opposite side; thus, the participants each defend a theory not out of conviction but for the sake of discussion. The theorist admitted that the two terms were often used the wrong way.