Love, History and Emotion in Chaucer and Shakespeare : Troilus and Criseyde and Troilus and Cressida

"This unique collection of essays explores medieval and early modern Troilus-texts from Chaucer to Shakespeare, looking at the powerful potential of emotions to shape and critique complex notions of temporality and textuality. The contributors show how medieval and early modern fictions of Troy use love (and other emotions generated and absorbed by love) as a means of approaching the past and the problem of tradition. Because of the long textual history to which they self-consciously look back, fictions of the Troilus and Criseyde/Cresseid/Cressida-tradition cannot avoid reflecting on the tradition from which they derive and the question of literary tradition itself. As they do so, these texts highlight both the affective nature of temporality and the ability of affect to serve as a prism through which tradition itself can be subjected to critical scrutiny. By focusing on a specific textual lineage that bridges the medieval/early modern divide this collection participates in the burgeoning exchange between medievalists and early modernists and seeks to generate a truly dialogic encounter between the periods. The collection brings together a number of highly respected scholars from both medieval and early modern studies, many of whom have, in recent years, been instrumental in shaping the terms of the ongoing debate on the nature of the medieval/early modern divide. Thus, this volume continues a discussion which has helped to dismantle the rigid notions of chronology and periodisation that have kept medieval and early modern scholarship apart"--Back cover Front matter Contents Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction: performing the politics of passion: Troilus and Criseyde and Troilus and Cressida and the literary tradition of love and history ‘Expectation whirls me round’: hope, fear and time in Troilus and Cressida ‘Potent raisings’: performing passion in Chaucer and Shakespeare The space of desire in Chaucer’s and Shakespeare’s Troy What’s Hecuba to him? Absence, silence and lament in Troilus and Criseyde and Troilus and Cressida Remembering to forget in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida: narrative palimpsestsand moribund epochalities ‘Language in her eye’: the expressive face of Criseyde/Cressida The presence of Troilus and Cressida: Shakespeare’s refurbishment of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde ‘Stewed phrase’ and the impassioned imagination in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida Arrogant authorial performances: Criseyde to Cressida Changing emotions in Troilus: the crucial year Gendered books: reading, space and intimacy inChaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde ‘The formless ruin of oblivion’: Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida and literary defacement Index This collection of essays explores medieval and early modern Troilus-texts from Chaucer to Shakespeare. The contributions show how medieval and early modern fictions of Troy use love and other emotions as a means of approaching the problem of tradition. As these texts reflect on their own traditionality, they highlight both the affective nature of temporality and the role of affect in scrutinising tradition itself. Focusing on a specific textual lineage that bridges the conventional period boundaries, the collection participates in an exchange between medievalists and early modernists that seeks to generate a dialogic encounter between the periods with the aim of further dismantling the rigid notions of chronology and periodisation that have kept medieval and early modern scholarship apart.