Using queer theory to untangle all types of nrmative 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 enbling 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 ter 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 cant 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 t just England s foundational love poet, he is also England s foundational queer poet.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Ohio State University Press
ISBN-10
0814212646
ISBN-13
9780814212646
eBay Product ID (ePID)
208895366
Product Key Features
Author
Professor Tison Pugh
Format
Hardback, Sewn,Paper over Boards
Language
English
Subject
Literary Criticism
Type
Textbook
Additional Product Features
Series Title
Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture
Author Biography
Tison Pugh Is Professor of English at University of Central Florida.