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A Strange Object of Aesthetic Desire: Chaucer’s Theatre as Cinema

Book cover © Manchester University Press

Book cover © Manchester University Press

Andrew James Johnston – 2025

The chapter investigates Chaucer's architectural fantasy of Duke Theseus's theatre in The Knight's Tale in terms of its implicit aesthetic potential, arguing that the combination of a mechanical/mathematical aesthetics with a diametrically opposed one of sensuousness produces a type of cinematic experience that focuses not merely on projecting moving images onto a two-dimensional screen, but turns space into an aesthetic site of human-made visual and corporeal dynamics.

Title
A Strange Object of Aesthetic Desire: Chaucer’s Theatre as Cinema
Publisher
Manchester University Press
Location
Manchester
Keywords
Book Chapter; RA 3: Future Perfect
Date
2025-09-02
Appeared in
Martin Bleisteiner, Jan-Peer Hartmann, Andrew James Johnston (Eds.). Strange Matter: Medieval Disruptions of Time (= Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture)
Type
Text
Size or Duration
95–110
Coverage
This publication is the result of work carried out in Research Area 3: Future Perfect.
How to cite:
Andrew James Johnston. "A Strange Object of Aesthetic Desire: Chaucer’s Theatre as Cinema." In Strange Matter: Medieval Disruptions of Time, edited by Martin Bleisteiner, Jan-Peer Hartmann, and Andrew James Johnston, 95–110. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2025.