This book reformulates the master narrative of erotic discourse in medieval literature. Individual chapters offer fresh readings of the nature and claims of erotic attachments in Abelard and Heloise, Marie de France, Jean de Meun, Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer - writers profoundly influenced by Augustine and Ovid.

Autorentext
ROBERT R. EDWARDS is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. A Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, he is the former editor-in-chief of Comparative Literature Studies, and served as Professor and Chair
of English at the University of Buffalo. His previous books include Chaucer and Boccaccio: Antiquity and Modernity, The Dream of Chaucer: Representation and Reflection in Chaucer's Early Narratives, and The Montecassino Passion and the Poetics of Medieval Drama. He has edited John Lydgate's Siege of Thebes and selections from Lydgate's Troy Book and collections of essays dealing with love and marriage in the Middle Ages and the contexts of Middle English literature.

Inhalt
Preface Introduction Desire and Plenitude in Saint Augustine's Confessions 'Nullum Crimen Erit': Ovidian Craft and the Illusion of Mastery Abelard and Heloise: Conversion and Irreducible Desire Marie de France and Le Livre Ovide Le Roman de la Rose: 'All the Art of Love Enclosed' 'Simulacra Nostra': The Problem of Desire in Dante's Vita Nuova The Desolate Palace and the Solitary City: Chaucer, Boccaccio, and Dante Afterward Notes Bibliography Index