The present study investigates Chaucer’s use of the erotic in The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. The study addresses an oversight within Chaucerian scholarship. Scholars have largely ignored his use of the erotic as a literary device. The thesis argues that his use of the erotic allows for both a celebration and a critique of the often conflicting mores of his days. The study argues that, by subverting traditional literary genres, and inventing new ones, Chaucer provided alternative life-views. These alternatives served as subtle but powerful critiques both of institutional hegemony and of the power structures the hegemony protected. The study locates Chaucer in relation to a number of ancient and medieval currents of thought in which, by the late Middle Ages, questions of sexuality, agency, and autonomy had come to intersect. It also examines Chaucer’s sources for the construction of erotic relationships in his poetry. The study’s viewpoint is that, if one is to understand Chaucer, one needs to understand the culture in which he lived. The scope of the study is broad. It draws together cultural, historical, psychological, philosophical, and literary material to offer both depth and breadth in its arguments. It is hoped that this will stimulate new debate about the relationship between eroticism and genre in Chaucer’s poetry.