Magister amoris: The Roman de la Rose and Vernacular Hermeneutics

by Alastair J. Minnis

The Roman de la Rose was a major bestseller--largely due to its robust treatment of "natural" sexuality. This study concentrates on the ways in which Jean de Meun, in imitation of Ovid, assumed the mock- magisterium (or mastership) of love. Alastair J. Minnis considers allegorical versus literalistic expression in the poem, Jean's provocative use of plain and sometimes obscene language, the challenge of its homosocial and perhaps even homoerotic constructions, and the problematic translation of literary authority from Latin into the vulgar tongue.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Alastair J, Minnis, born in 1948, is a Northern Irish literary critic and historian of ideas who has written extensively about medieval literature, and contributed substantially to the study of late-medieval theology and philosophy.

Minnis has held the post of the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English at Yale University since 2008.

"Characteristically, my research methodology brings together reading strategies from literary criticism and the history of ideas, and an interest in medieval philosophy and theology has informed much of my work. My latest monograph is From Eden to Eternity: Creations of Paradise in the Later Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)"