Chaucer's (anti- ) eroticisms and the queer Middle Ages
By: Tison Pugh
Series: Interventions: new studies in medieval culture; Interventions: new studies in medieval culture
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
ISBN-13: 9780814212646; 9780814253021
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Sex in literature; Eroticism in literature; Homosexuality in literature
Description: Using queer theory to untangle all types of nonnormative sexual identities, Tison Pugh uses Chaucer's work to expose the ongoing tension in the Middle Ages between an erotic culture that glorified love as an ennobling passion and an anti-erotic religious and philosophical tradition that denigrated love and (perhaps especially) its enactments. Chaucer's (Anti- )Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Ages considers the many ways in which anti-eroticisms complicate the conventional image of Chaucer. With chapters addressing such topics as mutual masochism, homosocial brotherhood, necrotic erotics, queer families, and the eroticisms of Chaucer's God, Chaucer's (Anti- )Eroticisms will forever change the way readers see the Canterbury Tales and Chaucer's other masterpieces. For Chaucer, erotic pursuits establish the thrust and tenor of many of his narratives, as they also expose the frustrations inherent in pursuing desires frowned upon by the religious foundations of Western medieval culture. One cannot love freely within an ideological framework that polices sexuality and privileges the anti-erotic Christian ideals of virginity and chastity, yet loving queerly creates escapes from social structures inimical to amour and its expressions in the medieval period. Thus Chaucer is not just England's foundational love poet, he is also England's foundational queer poet. --Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-235) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Mutual masochism and the hermaphroditic courtly lady in Chaucer's Franklin's tale; title: "For to be sworne bretheren til they deye": satirizing queer brotherhood in the Chaucerian corpus; title: Necrotic erotics in Chaucerian romance: loving women, loving death, and destroying civilization in The Knight's tale and Troilus and Criseyde; title: Queer families in The Canterbury tales: fathers, children, and abusive erotics; title: Chaucer's (anti- ) erotic god; title: Epilogue: Chaucer's avian amorousness.