Criseyde’s Secrets and Her Letters in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Troilus and Criseyde is Geoffrey Chaucer’s re-rendering of Boccaccio’s Il
Filostrato. In the second and fifth books of this poem, Chaucer presents
either in summary or verbatim bodies of letters that are communicated
between Troilus and Criseyde. My principal concern with this paper is to
investigate the ways in which epistolary materiality is manifested in
Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, focusing on the letters of Criseyde. My
claim is that the ways that Criseyde’s letters are articulated and
(re-)presented manifest her complex material and affective realities that
she most likely wants to conceal from the recipient Troilus. The reason
why her letters constantly feel guarded, ambiguous, evasive, or
prevaricating may be inseparable from the precarious circumstances that
are beyond her control but she must still navigate through with utmost
prudence and deliberation so as to sustain the values that she has been
concerned about as a young widow. For the theoretical devices for my
argument, I will draw on Gary’s Schneider’s epistolary materiality and
Georg Simmel’s account on the peculiars of the letter as a mode of writing.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. Introduction
• II. Criseyde’s First Letter That Would “Fayn”
• III. Litera Criseydis and Her Secrets
• IV. Conclusion
• Works Cited
• Abstract