Simon Gaunt is Professor of French Language and Literature and Head of the French Department at King's College London.

• Introduction


• 1: Love's martyrdom and the ethical subject


• 2: To die for: the sovereign power of the lady in troubadour lyric


• 3: The deadly secrets of the heart: the Chastelaine de Vergy and the Castelain de Couci


• 4: Between two (or more) deaths: Tristan, Lancelot, Cligès


• 5: Talking the talk/walking the walk: gendering death


• 6: The queer look of love: Narcissus, Bel Vezer, Galehaut


• Conclusion

Examines the association of love and death in medieval French and Occitan courtly literature using an approach informed by Lacanian psychoanalysis and Jacques Derrida. Offers new readings of canonical authors and texts, including Bernart de Ventadorn, Jaufre Rudel, Chrétien de Troyes, Thomas's Tristan, the Prose Lancelot, the Tristan en prose, La Mort le roi Artu, Marie de France, Le Chastelaine de Vergy, Le Castelain de Couci, and Le Roman de la Rose.