Chaucer

by Saunders, Corinne

• ISBN13: 9780631217114
• ISBN10: 0631217118
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-21
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This lively student compendium presents a comprehensive selection of the key critical views of Chaucer in the twentieth century. Stimulating introductions and editorial comment enable students to enter into dialogue with critical opinion, and thereby with Chaucer's writings, whilst the juxtaposition of past and present criticism equips them with a sense of historical perspective. A preliminary chapter addresses the growth of Chaucer criticism over the centuries, and the main developments of the twentieth century, incorporating a range of brief extracts. The structure of the volume then reflects the three major divisions of Chaucer's writing: bull; bull;The Dream Vision poetry bull;'Troilus and Criseyde' bull; 'The Canterbury Tales' Linking discussions introduce the main themes and critical issues of these works. Each section then presents different seminal approaches. For 'The Canterbury Tales', for example, students can chart their paths through early allegorical readings, iconographic studies, New Historical approaches, and gender theory. In this way, the volume furnishes the reader with a broader critical repertoire and encourages independence of thought, but also offers a unified discussion of Chaucer's work.

Author Biography

Corinne Saunders is Lecturer at the University of Durham. Her previous publications include Forest of Medieval Romance (1993) and Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England (2001).

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Acknowledgements	x
Introduction	1	(4)
The Development of Chaucer Criticism	5	(17)
Chaucer's Reading and Audience: Critical Extracts	22	(35)
The English and European Literary Traditions	22	(10)
Derek Brewer
Chaucer: The Teller and the Tale	32	(11)
Gabriel Josipovici
The Audience	43	(14)
Paul Strohm
Dream Vision Poetry: An Overview	57	(11)
Dream Vision Poetry: Critical Extracts	68	(61)
The Lady White and the White Tablet: The Book of the Duchess	68	(8)
Judith Ferster
`The Dido Episode' in The House of Fame	76	(7)
Wolfgang Clemen
Chaucer's Fame and Her World: The Poem	83	(13)
Piero Boitani
Park of Paradise and Garden of Love	96	(5)
J. A. W. Bennett
The Parliament of Fowls	101	(14)
A. C. Spearing
The Narrator as Translator	115	(6)
Donald W. Rowe
Chaucer's Classical Legendary	121	(8)
Lisa J. Kiser
Troilus and Criseyde: An Overview	129	(10)
Troilus and Criseyde: Critical Extracts	139	(50)
The Ending of `Troilus'	139	(11)
E. Talbot Donaldson
The Heart and the Chain	150	(11)
John Leyerle
Criseyde: Woman in Medieval Society	161	(10)
David Aers
Coda: The Narrator	171	(6)
C. David Benson
History versus Romance	177	(12)
Lee Patterson
The Canterbury Tales: An Overview	189	(12)
The Canterbury Tales: Critical Extracts	201	(124)
The Unity of the Canterbury Tales	201	(11)
Robert M. Jordan
The Esthetics of this Form	212	(6)
Donald R. Howard
An Encyclopedia of Kinds	218	(21)
Helen Cooper
The Knight's Tale and Its Settings	239	(11)
V. A. Kolve
Fabliau, Confession, Satire	250	(19)
W. A. Davenport
Gems of Chastity	269	(14)
Ian Bishop
Anti-feminism	283	(16)
Jill Mann
The Franklin's Tale	299	(8)
Angela Jane Weisl
`Glose/Bele chose': The Wife of Bath and Her Glossators Eunuch Hermeneutics	307	(18)
Carolyn Dinshaw
Epilogue	325	(2)
Bibliography	327	(23)
Index	350