In the later Middle Ages clothing was used to mark religious, military, and chivalric orders; in the courtly milieu, more specifically, the ostentatious display of luxury dress was used as a means of self-definition for the ruling elite. In Courtly Love Undressed, E. Jane Burns explores the representation of this material culture in the literary texts and other documents that imagine various functions for elite clothing in twelfth- and thirteenth-century France.

Courtly Love Undressed
Reading Through Clothes in Medieval French Culture

E. Jane Burns

2002 | 336 pages | Cloth $55.00 | Paper $24.95
Literature | Cultural Studies
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Table of Contents

Introduction: The Damsel's Sleeve—Reading Through Clothes in Courtly Love

PART I. CLOTHING COURTLY BODIES
1 Fortune's Gown: Material Extravagance and the Opulence of Love

PART II. RECONFIGURING DESIRE: THE POETICS OF TOUCH
2 Amorous Attire: Dressing Up for Love
3 Love's Stitches Undone: Women's Work in the chanson de toile

PART III. DENATURALIZING SEX: WOMEN AND MEN ON A GENDERED SARTORIAL CONTINUUM
4 Robes, Armor, and Skin
5 From Woman's Nature to Nature's Dress

PART IV. EXPANDING COURTLY SPACE THROUGH EASTERN RICHES
6 Saracen Silk: Dolls, Idols, and Courtly Ladies
7 Golden Spurs: Love in the Eastern World of Floire et Blancheflor

Coda: Marie de Champagne and the Matière of Courtly Love

Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments