Ortiz-Mercado, Odette M.

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Altered images: The agency of the gaze in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde
(2016) Ortiz-Mercado, Odette M.; Haydock, Nickolas; College of Arts and Sciences - Arts; Batra, Nandita; Irizarry Rodríguez, José M.; Rivera, Rosita; Department of English; Carrero Figueroa, Rebecca
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde the protagonists experience the process of falling in and out of love in very different ways. The poem is shaped through the agency of the gaze that transforms the developing events according to the perspective of each character. This thesis, then, highlights the importance of perspectives, particularly the impact of the gaze and anamorphic changes in perspective on the development of the narrative. Included within this is the manner in which the audience comes to understand the events being narrated, which are viewed through different perspectives depending on whose gaze focalizes our attention. This will be achieved through the complementary application of Lacan’s observations on courtly love and the role of desire within this. However, the primary theoretical approach will be provided by Slavoj Žižek’s theories on anamorphosis and the gaze. A central point for this discussion is the conception that our desires transform our gaze, creating an anamorphic view of the events being narrated. The thesis will demonstrate how this composite of perspectives creates meaning within Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.