Mimetic Form in the Central Love Scene of 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Description: Contrasts the consummation scene of TC with its source in Boccaccio's "Filostrato," arguing that the changes produce a "far greater emotional intensity," largely because the narrative puts the reader through the process of partial fulfillment alternating with deferral, moving toward climax. As a result of this "mimetic form," which parallels the lovers' experience, the process "authenticates through form the quality of the events narrated."

Chaucer Subjects: Troilus and Criseyde; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations