Abstract
This article argues that the Troilus’s relationship with Criseyde is fraught with anxious desire. By referencing medieval theories of the mind and Kleinian psychoanalytic theory, it shows that the manner in which Troilus memorializes his desire for Criseyde in the books I to III of the poem has a direct impact on the way he experiences her loss in book V. Throughout the poem, anxiety is the definitive characteristic of Troilus’s desire. It emerges when he first encounters an uncontrollable desire and when the consummation of his desire is delayed. It is this anxious engendering of desire, and not loss per se, that causes the feelings of persecution and victimization in Troilus when he loses Criseyde at the end of the poem.
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I am grateful to Steven F. Kruger for his comments on an earlier version of this essay.
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Lim, G. “Thus Gan He Make a Mirour of His Mynde”: Fragmented Memories and Anxious Desire in Troilus and Criseyde . Neophilologus 93, 339–356 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-008-9135-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-008-9135-7