Queering Medieval Genres

Queering Medieval Genres proposes that, within the historical trajectory of many genres, certain agents are privileged while others are marginalized due to their understanding of heteronormative social codes. Examining the ways in which homosexuality disrupts generic and cultural expectations of heteronormativity, this book demonstrates that the introduction of the queer within medieval literature shatters the audience's expectations of textual pleasure and demands that they reconsider the effects of homosexuality on their constructions of sexual and spiritual identity. Scholars of medieval literature will appreciate the fresh insights that queer genre theory provides on critical texts of the period; additionally, Queering Medieval Genres outlines a hermeneutic device with which to analyze literature of other historical periods as well.

Tison Pugh is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Central Florida. He has also taught at the University of California at Irvine. Recent and forthcoming publications may be found in Journal of Narrative Theory, Arthuriana, Quidditas, Philological Quarterly, Christianity and Literature, and Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching.