ABSTRACT Reading Sir Thopas through cuteness shifts critical attention from the tale’s generic classification to questions of aesthetics and affect. The production of cute features through infantilization and feminization triggers tender caretaking and sadistic aggression; the cute object is paradoxically held gently and squeezed violently. Under the duress of the cute response, the Chaucerian narrator, Thopas, and the text become deformed. The flattening of physical and textual bodies leads to the obliteration of verticality and depth. Drawing on the superflat movement in Japanese contemporary art, I argue that cuteness in Sir Thopas effects a compression of the text’s narrative layers and semiotic networks. Mirroring the horizontal, non-linear organization of the poem’s layout in medieval manuscripts, desire moves sideways across Sir Thopas. The lateral mobility and the agglutinating property of cuteness allow it to adhere to and cutify objects in its vicinity; the catalogues of romance tropes in Sir Thopas thereby function as cute object clusters within a late medieval middling household. Too much sticky sweetness, however, results in revulsion and not adoration. When the Host interrupts Chaucer and compares the poem to excrement, he enacts the labile fungibility of cuteness and disgust. Sir Thopas is both feces and a dainty thing.

中文翻译：

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可爱的乔uc

摘要通过可爱阅读Thopas爵士，将注意力从故事的一般分类转移到美学和情感问题上。通过婴儿化和女性化而产生的可爱特征触发了温柔的照顾和虐待狂。可爱的物体被轻柔地捏着并猛烈地挤压着。在可爱的回应的胁迫下，Chaucerian叙述者Thopas和文字变得变形。身体和文本身体的扁平化导致垂直性和深度的消失。我借鉴日本当代艺术中的超扁平化运动，认为托帕斯爵士的可爱使文字的叙事层次和符号网络得到压缩。欲望反映了中世纪手稿中诗歌布局的水平，非线性组织，欲望在托帕斯爵士身边横行。可爱的横向移动性和凝聚性使其可以粘附并切割附近的物体；Thopas爵士的浪漫对白目录因此在中世纪晚期的中等家庭中充当可爱的对象群。但是，过多的粘甜会导致反感而不是崇拜。当主持人打断乔uc并将这首诗与排泄物进行比较时，他表现出可爱和厌恶的不稳定替代性。托帕斯爵士既是粪便又是精致的东西。当主持人打断乔uc并将这首诗与排泄物进行比较时，他会表现出可爱和厌恶的不稳定替代性。托帕斯爵士既是粪便又是精致的东西。当主持人打断乔uc并将这首诗与排泄物进行比较时，他会表现出可爱和厌恶的不稳定替代性。托帕斯爵士既是粪便又是精致的东西。