Secularizing the Word: Conversion Models in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde

Abstract

Hopkins's verse offers a suggestive introduction to this study of Chaucer's appropriation of two contrasting models of individual conversion to Christianity, exemplified by the stories of Paul and Augustine, to explore the psychology of fin' amor as a surrogate religion in the pre-Christian world of Troilus and Criseyde. 1 Literary models of religious conversion are particularly well suited for representing the experience of secular love. Like conversion, love necessitates a retrospective form of understanding, a narrative that recollects and interprets the decisive experiences that mark discovery and transformation. 2 In his recent guide to Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Barry Windeatt summarizes a number of earlier studies that effectively liken Troilus's experience to religious conversion and particularly to Saul's sudden conversion to Christian faith on the road to Damascus: 3

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