The Medieval Poet as Voyeur

In his new book, leading medievalist A. C. Spearing provides the only study of the many scenes of secret watching and listening in medieval love-stories, and of the way that the central importance of these scenes encourages both the poets and their readers to imagine themselves as voyeurs in relation to what they read.

A. C. Spearing (Author)

9780521410946, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 February 1993

332 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 2.8 cm, 0.665 kg

While love is private, and in medieval literature especially is seen as demanding secrecy, to tell stories about it is to make it public. Looking, often accompanied by listening, is the means by which love is brought into the public realm and by which legal evidence of adulterous love can be obtained. Medieval romances contain many scenes in which secret watchers and listeners play leading roles, and in which the problematic relation of sight to truth is a central theme. The effect of such scenes is to place the poem's audience as secret watchers and listeners; and in later medieval narratives, as the role of the storyteller comes to be realized, the poet too sees himself in the undignified role of a voyeur. A. C. Spearing's book explores these and related themes, first in relation to medieval and modern theories and instances of looking, and then through a series of readings of romances and first-person narratives, including works by Beroul, Gottfried von Strassburg, Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, Chaucer, Lydgate, Douglas, Dunbar, and Skelton. Its focus on looking also leads to the recovery of some less well-known works such as Partonope of Blois and The Squire of Low Degree. The general approach is psychoanalytic, but the reading of specific medieval texts always has primacy, and this in turn makes possible a running critique of current conceptions of the gaze in relation to power and gender.

Preface
1. Theories of killing
2. Examples of looking
3. The Tristan story
4. Chrétian de Troyes
5. The Lanval story
6. Troilus and Criseyde and 'The Manciple's Tale'
7. Partonope of Blois
8. 'The Knight's Tale' and 'The Merchant's Tale'
9. The Squyr of Lowe Degre
10. The Romaunt of the Rose
11. The Parliament of Fowls and A Complaynt of a Loveres Lyfe
12. The Palice of Honour and The Golden Targe
13. The Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo
14. Phyllyp Sparowe
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC]