Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: The Myths of Masculinity in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
- 1 “Beautiful as Troilus”: Richard II, Chaucer's Troilus, and Figures of (Un)Masculinity
- 2 The State of Exception and Sovereign Masculinity in Troilus and Criseyde
- 3 Revisiting Troilus's Faint
- 4 What Makes a Man? Troilus, Hector, and the Masculinities of Courtly love
- 5 Masculinity and Its Hydraulic Semiotics in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
- 6 Masochism, Masculinity, and the Pleasures of Troilus
- 7 “The Dreams in Which I'm Dying”: Sublimation and Unstable Masculinities in Troilus and Criseyde
- 8 “A Mannes Game”: Criseyde's Masculinity in Troilus and Criseyde
- 9 Troilus's Gaze and the Collapse of Masculinity in Romance
- 10 Sutured Looks and Homoeroticism: Reading Troilus and Pandarus Cinematically
- 11 Being a Man in Piers Plowman and Troilus and Criseyde
- 12 “The Monstruosity in Love”: Sexual Division in Chaucer and Shakespeare
- Index
- CHAUCER STUDIES
10 - Sutured Looks and Homoeroticism: Reading Troilus and Pandarus Cinematically
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: The Myths of Masculinity in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
- 1 “Beautiful as Troilus”: Richard II, Chaucer's Troilus, and Figures of (Un)Masculinity
- 2 The State of Exception and Sovereign Masculinity in Troilus and Criseyde
- 3 Revisiting Troilus's Faint
- 4 What Makes a Man? Troilus, Hector, and the Masculinities of Courtly love
- 5 Masculinity and Its Hydraulic Semiotics in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
- 6 Masochism, Masculinity, and the Pleasures of Troilus
- 7 “The Dreams in Which I'm Dying”: Sublimation and Unstable Masculinities in Troilus and Criseyde
- 8 “A Mannes Game”: Criseyde's Masculinity in Troilus and Criseyde
- 9 Troilus's Gaze and the Collapse of Masculinity in Romance
- 10 Sutured Looks and Homoeroticism: Reading Troilus and Pandarus Cinematically
- 11 Being a Man in Piers Plowman and Troilus and Criseyde
- 12 “The Monstruosity in Love”: Sexual Division in Chaucer and Shakespeare
- Index
- CHAUCER STUDIES
Summary
Over the years, scholars have commented on the close friendship between Troilus and Pandarus, some suggesting that there is something more or less “erotic” about their relationship. In articulating the implied homoeroticism of this relationship, scholars have left one methodological resource largely untapped: namely, film theory. Key interactions between Troilus and Pandarus in Book 1 can be read cinematically to elucidate the link between homoerotically charged visual dynamics and masculinity. By delineating unnarrated visual acts, one not only highlights the homoeroticism underlying the protracted encounter in Troilus's bedchamber, but also finds the unstable power relations between the two friends. This problematizes the concept of the gazer as active / “masculine” and the object of the gaze as passive / “feminine.” I am using “homoeroticism” here to refer to moments of heightened sensual (not necessarily sexual or reciprocal) attraction between intimate friends. In Chaucer's text, these homoerotic moments are inextricably linked with a disparity in the power one friend wields over the other. James Schultz rightly points out that “[t]he Middle Ages had no notion of sexual orientation,” and thus I make no claim that either Pandarus or Troilus is “homosexual,” “bisexual,” or “heterosexual.” However, these moments can be referred to, following Schultz's useful formulation, as “historical particulars,” against which we can set a binary arbitration such as active/passive. The sociohistorical particularity of homoeroticism, informed by fourteenth-century courtly society, is illustrated in specific scenes of intimate interactions between Troilus and Pandarus.
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- Men and Masculinities in Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde' , pp. 148 - 160Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008