The problematic notion ‘courtly love’ and its medieval counterparts like fin'amour remain a controversial and much discussed feature of Chrétien scholarship. Recent developments include focus on women, misogyny, and social hierarchies (reflected in Q and Ud), as well as debate regarding perceived moral, social, satirical, or farcical features of love in his romances. The significance of the love of Tristan and Iseut for Chrétien still attracts attention, although the problematic character of that love in medieval Tristan romances in recent scholarship has complicated the reading of Chrétien's responses to it, as well as that of the characters in his romances.

General Studies

14 Jackson, W. T. H., ‘The De Amore […]’ Repr. in Dc12.

30(II) Benton, John F., ‘Clio and Venus […]’ Repr. in Dc16.

43 Ferrante, J. M., and G. D. Economou, ed., In Pursuit of Perfection … (XXVIII.122)

See Joan M. Ferrante, ‘The Conflict of Lyric Conventions and Romance Form,’ pp. 135–78.

45 Mott, Lewis Freeman, The System of Courtly Love Studied as an Introduction to the ‘Vita Nuova’ of Dante (Boston: Ginn, 1896; repr. New York: Haskell House, 1965).

See Chap. 4.

46 Neilson, William Allan, The Origins and Sources of the ‘Court of Love’, [Harvard] Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, 6 (Boston: Ginn, 1899; repr. New York: Russell & Russell, 1967).

47 Wilcox, John, ‘Defining Courtly Love,’ Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, 12 (1929), 313–25.