Boccaccio's and Chaucer's Cressida
By: Laura D. Kellogg.
Series: Studies in the humanities,; v. 16; Studies in the humanities (New York, N.Y.) ;; v. 16.
Publisher: P. Lang; Lang AG International Academic Publishers, Peter
Published: 1995
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 144
Subjects: Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400. -- Sources.; Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400 -- Characters -- Cressida.; Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375 -- Influence.; Women and literature -- England -- History -- To 1500.; Women and literature -- Italy -- History -- To 1500.; Troilus (Legendary character) in literature.; Man-woman relationships in literature.; English poetry -- Italian influences.; Cressida (Fictitious character); Trojan War -- Literature and the war.; Women in literature.
Description: During the Middle Ages, the story of Cressida's infidelity to Troilus intrigued writers, and different versions of this tale continued to be retold and reworked through the Renaissance. This study focuses on the figure of Cressida in two fourteenth century works, Boccaccio's Filostrato and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, and devotes particular attention both to classical and medieval prototypes for Cressida and to each narrator's role in shaping her.

The study's originality derives from its compelling demonstration of the tensions between a Cressida defined by literary history and convention and a Cressida recast through perceptually limited narrators. Offering Dido as a dynamic model for Cressida, this book provides an extensive treatment of Boccaccio's Dido.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [125]-144).