Chaucer's (Anti-)Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Ages

ISBN-13: 9780814253021 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 254 str.

Professor Tison Pugh (University of Central Florida USA)

Opis

Using queer theory to untangle various nonnormative sexual identities in Chaucers Canterbury Tales and other works, Tison Pugh explores 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. Chaucers (Anti )Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Ages considers the many ways in which anti-eroticisms complicate the conventional image of Chaucer as a defining love poet of the Western tradition. 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 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. With chapters addressing such topics as mutual masochism, homosocial brotherhood, necrotic erotics, queer families, and the eroticisms of Chaucers God, Chaucers (Anti )Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Ages will forever change the way readers see the Canterbury Tales and Chaucers other masterpieces, proving that Chaucer is not just Englands foundational love poet, he is Englands foundational queer poet as well.Tison Pugh is professor of English at the University of Central Florida.