Disembodied Laughter: Troilus and the Apotheosis Tradition

Disembodied Laughter: Troilus and the Apotheosis Tradition by Steadman, John M.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780520020474.

Absolutely lauded as a glorification of the courtly lover and condemned as a nest of contradictions, the conclusion of Chaucer’s TROILUS has long been a center of critical debate. Its artistic merits and its consistency with the values of the poem as a whole are still warmly attacked and as for the fervidly defended. Taking as its point of departure the terminal flight scene -- where the hero’s ghost looks down upon the earth from the heavens and ridicules the grief of his mourners -- DISEMBODIED LAUGHTER reexamines the thematic relationships between Chaucer’s otherworldly conclusion and his narrative of a worldly romance. Reinterpreting the poet’s treatment of the flight motif and the contemptus mundi is theme against the background of Stoic and Neoplatonic pneumatology medieval or early Renaissance commentaries on the classics, the study explore is the affinities between the apotheosis tradition and the tradition of Boethius’ CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. The motives of the astral voyage of the contempt of the world when Chaucer’s protagonist with other apotheosized heroes, accentuating the Boethian values implicit in this tragedy or explicitly developed in earlier scenes. The first chapters of this book attempt to provide a connected account of the development of the flight theme from Lucan through Dante, Boccaccio, and other Continental writers to Chaucer. Troilus’ ascent after death to the eighth sphere is reminiscent of the flight of other heroic pagans to the lunar Elysium. His posthumous insights and his laughter at worldly vanities in comparison with celestial perfection are likewise firmly rooted in the apotheosis tradition. The final chapters examine the structural and thematic relationships between the flight episode and the Bothian topoi underling other crucial scenes in the poem.