New Directions in Feminist and Queer Readings of Medieval French Literature: A Session in Honor of Simon Gaunt
Simon Gaunt’s research interests were remarkably varied: from Romance philology to psychoanalysis, postcolonial studies, and beyond. This panel honors one important part of his legacy: his groundbreaking feminist and queer readings of medieval literature. Two of his monographs stand out in this regard. The influential Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature (1995)offers a remarkably broad map of the ways whereby different genres—chansons de geste, romance, troubadour lyrics, hagiography, and fabliaux—both construe and trouble notions of masculinity and femininity. Love and Death in Medieval French and Occitan Literature: Martyrs to Love (2006) is concerned with the interplay of death and desire in courtly texts.