![]() ![]() Contrary to a critical tradition that locates the queer Middle Ages at the margins of these courtly genres, Courtly and Queer emphasizes an unflagging queerness that is inseparable from poetic indeterminacy and that inhabits the core of a literary tradition usually assumed to be conservative and patriarchal. In close readings informed by deconstruction and queer theory, Samuelson argues that the genres’ juxtaposition opens up radical new perspectives on the deviant poetics and gender and sexual politics of both. In Courtly and Queer, Charlie Samuelson casts queerness in medieval French texts about courtly love in a new light by bringing together for the first time two exemplary genres: high medieval verse romance, associated with the towering figure of Chrétien de Troyes, and late medieval dits, primarily associated with Guillaume de Machaut. Bryan is Associate Professor of English, Brown University.Ĭourtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature Illustrations of manuscript pages accompany analysis, and the reader is invited to engage in interpreting the manuscript text.Ĭollaborative Meaning in Medieval Scribal Culture will be of interest to students and specialists in medieval chronicle histories, Middle English, Arthurian literature, and literary and textual theory.Įlizabeth J. Part two conducts a detailed study of the multiple interpretations built into the manuscript text. Part one presents Early Middle English concepts of "enjoining" texts and explores the theoretical and methodological challenges they pose to present-day readers of scribally-produced texts. She discovers cultural attitudes that valued communal aspects of manuscript texts-for example, a view of the physical book as connecting all who read or even held it to each other. In Collaborative Meaning in Medieval Scribal Culture, Bryan compares examples from the British Library Cotton Otho C.xiii manuscript of La3amon's Brut, the early thirteenth-century verse history that translated King Arthur into English for the first time. Is it appropriate, Elizabeth Bryan asks, for us to read these books as products of a single author's consciousness? And if not, how do we read them? Two manuscripts of the "same" text could package and transmit that text very differently, depending on the choices made by scribes, compilers, translators, annotators, and decorators. These relationships and rituals became a powerful force in shaping the literature of the day, in particular through their significant contribution to the ever popular tales of romance and chivalry.Before the technology of print, every book was unique. Typically the knight’s love is unrequited, and the real reward for his devoted service is an educational one. Just as the knight owed obedience and loyalty to his lord, enduring hardship and dangers in his service, so he must show faithful devotion and obedience to his lady, performing heroic deeds in an effort to win her favour. These idealised customs were based on the traditional codes of conduct associated with knighthood, such as duty, honour, courtesy and bravery. Widely popular in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, courtly love was characterised by a series of stylised rituals between a knight and a married lady of high rank. The term ‘courtly love’ conjures up images of romantic liaisons between knights and ladies, or colourful jousting tournaments overlooked by adoring female spectators. Enchanting settings, rich pageantry and elaborate costumes are evidence of the lavish life-style of royalty in the late 1400s. This version of the poem was written and illuminated by the artist known as The Master of the Prayer Books of c.1500. The walled garden belongs to a nobleman called Déduit – the Old French word for pleasure. His footsteps take him to a lush orchard enclosed by a high wall. Rising one May morning the lover strolls along a riverbank, enjoying the sights and sounds of a new spring. The poem is told as if it were a dream, speaking through the voice of the Lover. ![]() It tells of the Lover’s quest for the Rose, which symbolises his lady’s love. ![]() The poem was composed in the 1200s at the height of the age of chivalry and courtly love. This illustration accompanies a love poem entitled, ‘The Story of the Rose’ by the French poet Guillaume de Lorris. ![]()
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