Abstract
In response to gay and queer criticism (Boswell, Burgwinkle, Mieszkowski, etc.), the article examines Lancelot and Galehout's affective compaignie and possible homoerotic desires in the Old French Lancelot (c. 1220) as a radical reinvention of romance conventions and types. Taking Le roman de Thebes (c. 1150) as the main point of reference among several early romans, it argues that the signs of the companions' deep mutual affection in the Lancelot point to conventional romance postures and gestures that appear to have nothing to do with same-sex desire. Indeterminacy with respect to the companions' affection and desires is inherent in the narrative's atypical construction of gendered romance types. The article contends that readers must take into account the romance's ambiguous textuality, its relationship to other romance texts, as a factor contributing to the companions' problematic sexuality, which is not reducible to specifically homoerotic desires.
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