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

Using queer theory to untangle all types of nonnormative sexual identities, Tison Pugh uses Chaucers 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.Chaucers (Anti-)Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Agesconsiders 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 Chaucers God,Chaucers (Anti-)Eroticismswill forever change the way readers see theCanterbury Talesand Chaucers other masterpieces.
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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 Englands foundational love poet, he is also Englands foundational queer poet.

Chaucers (Anti-)Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Agesis exhaustively researched both in the theoretical works that underpin its arguments and in the practical criticism of the various Chaucerian works under examination. With its careful and thoughtful readings, this book is a convincing expansion of the fields of both Chaucer studies and queer medieval studies. Robert Sturges, Arizona State University
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Tison Pughs interest in the anti-erotic, and in the contradictions of medieval discourses about chastity and married love, promises to solve some of the problems inhlÃ-