While most Chaucer critics interested in gender and sexuality have used psychoanalytic theory to analyze Chaucer's poetry, Mark Miller re-examines the links between sexuality and the philosophical analysis of agency in medieval texts such as the Canterbury Tales, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, and the Romance of the Rose. Chaucer's philosophical sophistication provides the basis for a new interpretation of the emerging notions of sexual desire and romantic love in the late Middle Ages.
Author(s): Mark Miller
Series: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 302
Series-title......Page 5
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Introduction......Page 13
EROS AND NORMATIVITY......Page 16
NORMATIVITY, IDEOLOGY, ETHICS......Page 24
SEXUALITY AND MORAL ALTERITY IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION......Page 33
PHILOSOPHICAL CHAUCER AND THE PLAN OF THE BOOK......Page 38
CHAPTER 1 Naturalism and its discontents in the Miller's Tale......Page 48
ON NORMATIVE NATURALISM......Page 52
THE PERVERSE REMAINDER......Page 62
AGENCY, GENDER, AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PERVERSE......Page 68
IMAGINING INTIMACY......Page 81
CHAPTER 2 Normative longing in the Knight's Tale......Page 94
ETHICAL AND EROTIC FORMALISM: PICTURING EMILY......Page 96
THESEAN AUTONOMY......Page 103
EROS AND AUTONOMY......Page 113
CHAPTER 3 Agency and dialectic in the Consolation of Philosophy......Page 123
THE HAPPINESS ARGUMENT AND BOETHIAN PSYCHOLOGY......Page 126
BOETHIAN APORIA AND DIALECTICAL FORM......Page 136
AN ANTINOMY AT THE HEART OF AGENCY......Page 142
BOETHIUS, CHAUCER, AND NORMATIVE NOSTALGIA......Page 156
CHAPTER 4 Sadomasochism and utopia in the Roman de la Rose......Page 164
EROTIC PATHOLOGY AND THE SCENE OF FANTASY......Page 168
THE CLAIM OF REASON AND THE DEADLOCK OF UTOPIAN DESIRE......Page 181
BEING NORMAL......Page 190
CHAPTER 5 Suffering love in the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale......Page 203
BLOOD AND MONEY......Page 204
THE MYTH OF THE SUBJECT......Page 209
THE EROTICS OF AMBIVALENCE......Page 216
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD......Page 222
CHAPTER 6 Love's promise: the Clerk's Tale and the scandal of the unconditional......Page 228
THE POLITICS OF NARCISSISM......Page 232
GRISILDAN UNCONDITIONALITY......Page 241
LOVE'S ANTINOMY......Page 251
INTRODUCTION: CHAUCER AND THE PROBLEM OF NORMATIVITY......Page 261
NATURALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS IN THE MILLER'S TALE......Page 265
NORMATIVE LONGING IN THE KNIGHT'S TALE......Page 270
AGENCY AND DIALECTIC IN THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY......Page 271
SADOMASOCHISM AND UTOPIA IN THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE......Page 275
SUFFERING LOVE IN THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE AND TALE......Page 279
LOVE'S PROMISE: THE CLERK'S TALE AND THE SCANDAL OF THE UNCONDITIONAL......Page 281
Bibliography......Page 284
Index......Page 293
