Chaucer’s Pandarus and Foucault’s Theory of Power

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If Geoffrey Chaucer for some unforeseen reason was unable to published The Canterbury Tales, then perhaps, his version of Troilus and Criseyde would be widely acknowledged as one of his most epic tragic poems. However, Chaucer’s poem, though adapted widely into various modern translations, for the sake of this paper the translation by Barry Windeatt will be used, the tale’s influential go-between is still a character trope used today. In fact, the romantic entanglements that the main characters find themselves in are the results of the power structure established by the go-between Pandarus. From the first instance where Pandarus witnesses his friend Troilus’s love-struck grief, the convincing speeches given to yield beneficial results for the Prince Troilus, and the letter trope established in Pandarus’s role as the go-between, which establishes the patriarchal power structure that Pandarus identifies with. Occupying the power structure as defined by theorist Michel Foucault, which upholds that power is the mechanism that establishes the autonomy or de-individualization of a person (Felluga). Therefore, Foucauldian discourse attributed to bodies and power is upheld by the mediator status of Pandarus as the go-between, manipulative rhetor, and plot device in the tale Troilus and Criseyde is used to establish the notions of courtly love.
Through the actions of Pandarus, the noble, ceremonious and often performative masculine presence in the text, the power of Pandarus lies within his ability to act. As Foucault explains, “power exists only when it is put into action” (Felluga). Therefore, since Pandarus holds a position of subjection to the court, as he is not only the friend of the Prince, Troilus, but he is also his messenger and...

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...ga, Dino. “Modules on Foucault: On Power.” Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Purdue U. 1 Dec. 2013. .
Foucault, Michel. “Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977,” Ed. C. Gordon, Pantheon Books, 1980. Print.
Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and Punish: the birth of a prison. London, Penguin.

Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. University of California Press, 1992. Print.
Rabinow, Paul (editor) (1991) The Foulcault Reader: An introduction to Foulcault’s thought, London, Penguin.

Schoeck, Richard J. and Jerome Taylor, Ed. Chaucer Criticism Volume II: Troilus and Criseyde & The Minor Poems. University of Notre Dame Press, 1961. Print.
Windeatt, Barry. Troilus and Criseyde. 1992. Oxford Guides to Chaucer. Oxford: University Press, 1995.

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