Download or read book Chaucerian Conflict written by Marion Turner and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2006-11-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chaucerian Conflict explores the textual environment of London in the 1380s and 1390s, revealing a language of betrayal, surveillance, slander, treason, rebellion, flawed idealism, and corrupted compaignyes. Taking a strongly interdisciplinary approach, it examines how discourses about social antagonism work across different kinds of texts written at this time, including Chaucer's House of Fame, Troilus and Criseyde, and Canterbury Tales, and other literary texts such as St Erkenwald, Gower's Vox clamantis, Usk's Testament of Love, and Maidstone's Concordia. Many non-literary texts are also discussed, including the Mercers' Petition, Usk's Appeal, the guild returns, judicial letters, de Mezieres's Letter to Richard II, and chronicle accounts. These were tumultuous decades in London: some of the conflicts and problems discussed include the Peasants' Revolt, the mayoral rivalries of the 1380s, the Merciless Parliament, slander legislation, and contemporary suspicion of urban associations. While contemporary texts try to hold out hope for the future, or imagine an earlier Golden Age, Chaucer's texts foreground social conflict and antagonism. Though most critics have promoted an idea of Chaucer's texts as essentially socially optimistic and congenial, Marion Turner argues that Chaucer presents a vision of a society that is inevitably divided and destructive.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Chaucer written by Suzanne Conklin Akbari and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2020 with total page 689 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook addresses Chaucer's poetry in the context of several disciplines, including late medieval philosophy and science, Mediterranean culture, comparative European literature, vernacular theology and popular devotion.
Download or read book Chaucer written by David B. Raybin and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Eleven essays that explore how modern scholarship interprets Chaucer's writings"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts written by Carolynn Van Dyke and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on recent work in critical animal studies and posthumanism, this book challenges past assumptions that animals were only explored as illustrative of humanity, not as interesting in their own right. The contributors combine close reading of Chaucer's texts with insights drawn from cultural or critical animal studies.
Download or read book Chaucer s Language written by Simon Horobin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-17 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The English language has changed dramatically over the past 500 years, making it increasingly difficult for students to read Chaucer's works. Assuming no previous linguistic knowledge or familiarity with Middle English, Simon Horobin introduces students to Chaucer's language and the importance of reading Chaucer in the original, rather than modern translation. Chaucer's Language - leads the reader gently through basic linguistic concepts with appropriate explanation - highlights how Chaucer's English differs from present-day English, and the significance of this for interpreting and understanding his work - provides close analysis and comparison with the writings of Chaucer's contemporaries to show how Chaucer drew on the variety of Middle English to achieve particular poetic effects - includes sample texts, a glossary of linguistic terminology, a bibliography and suggestions for further reading to aid study. Authoritative and easy-to-follow, this is an indispensable guide to understanding, appreciating and enjoying the language of Chaucer. Assuming no previous linguistic knowledge, Simon Horobin introduces students to Chaucer's language and the importance of reading Chaucer in the original, rather than in a modern translation. This updated edition includes references to most recent scholarship, suggestions for future research and an extensive glossary with sample quotations. Assumes no prior knowledge of Middle English One of the few books available devoted exclusively to Chaucer's language Incorporates the latest research and scholarship, draws on modern linguistic methods
Download or read book Chaucer s Neoplatonism written by John M. Hill and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although centrally focused on varieties of friendship and love in Troilus and Criseyde, the discussion in Chaucer’s Neoplatonism includes the dream visions as well as aspects of The Canterbury Tales. It lays out Chaucer’s Boethian-inspired, cognitive approach, drawn mainly from Book V of the Consolatio, to whatever subject he treats. Far from courting skepticism, Chaucer gathers many variants of such matters as love, friendship, and community within a meditative mode that assess better and worse instances. He does so to illuminate a fuller sense of the forms that respectively underlie particular manifestations of love, joy, friendship or community. That process is both cognitive and aesthetic in that beauty and truth appear more fully as one assess both better and worse instances of an idea or of an experience. Chapters on the dream visions establish Chaucer’s reasonable belief in the truth-value of fictions, however grounded on exaggerated and mixed tidings of truth and falsehood. Chapters on Troilus and Criseyde examine relationships between the main characters given the place of noble friendship within an initially promising but then tragic love story. The drama of those relationships become Chaucer’s major claim to fame before the tales of Canterbury, where, for meditative purposes, he gathers various gestures toward community among the dramatically interacting pilgrims, while also exploring the dynamics of reconciliation.
Download or read book 30 Great Myths about Chaucer written by Thomas A. Prendergast and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The facts and fictions that continue to shape our understanding of Chaucer and his place in literary tradition Is Chaucer the father of English literature? The first English poet? Was he a feminist? A political opportunist? A spy? Is Chaucer’s language too difficult for modern readers? 30 Great Myths about Chaucer explores the widely held ideas and opinions about the medieval poet, discussing how ‘myths’ have influenced Chaucer’s reception history and interpretations of his poetry through the centuries. This unique text offers original insights on the character of Chaucer, the nature of his works, the myths that inform our conceptions of Chaucer, and the underlying causes of these myths. Each accessible and engaging chapter focuses on a specific myth, including those surrounding Chaucer’s romantic life, political leanings, religious views, personal struggles, financial challenges, ideas about chivalry, representations of social class, and many others. More than simply correcting inaccurate facts or clarifying common misconceptions about Chaucer, the text delves deeper to address how the myths have shaped the critical interpretation and enduring literary legacy of Chaucer. This innovative volume: Explores how generations of readers continue to shape understanding of Chaucer Highlights the intersection of medievalism and Chaucer studies Helps readers detach myths about Chaucer from critical readings of his works Examines whether myths about Chaucer are based on historical fact or literary interpretation Discusses the history of reading Chaucer in contexts of biography, criticism, and popular culture 30 Great Myths about Chaucer is an indispensable resource for academics, researchers, graduate students, upper-level undergraduates, and general readers with interest in Chaucer and early English and Middle Ages literature.
Download or read book Chaucer written by Marion Turner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "More than any other canonical English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer lived and worked at the centre of political life -- yet his poems are anything but conventional. Edgy, complicated, and often dark, they reflect a conflicted world, and their astonishing diversity and innovative language earned Chaucer renown as the father of English literature. Marion Turner, however, reveals him as a great European writer and thinker. To understand his accomplishment, she reconstructs in unprecedented detail the cosmopolitan world of Chaucer's adventurous life, focusing on the places and spaces that fired his imagination. Uncovering important new information about Chaucer's travels, private life, and the early circulation of his writings, this innovative biography documents a series of vivid episodes, moving from the commercial wharves of London to the frescoed chapels of Florence and the kingdom of Navarre, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side by side. The narrative recounts Chaucer's experiences as a prisoner of war in France, as a father visiting his daughter's nunnery, as a member of a chaotic Parliament, and as a diplomat in Milan, where he encountered the writings of Dante and Boccaccio. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of Chaucer's writings, taking the reader to the Troy of Troilus and Criseyde, the gardens of the dream visions, and the peripheries and thresholds of The Canterbury Tales. By exploring the places Chaucer visited, the buildings he inhabited, the books he read, and the art and objects he saw, this landmark biography tells the extraordinary story of how a wine merchant's son became the poet of The Canterbury Tales." -- Publisher's description.
Download or read book Geoffrey Chaucer Authors in Context written by Peter Brown and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-11 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Chaucer's life and poetry through the lens of his cultural experience. It offers a wide-ranging account of the medieval society from which his works sprang, and examines the works in detail. It considers the intellectual and philosophical contexts, and the modern reception of Chaucer in film and television.
Download or read book Following Chaucer written by Lynn Staley and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2020-04-21 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following Chaucer: Offices of the Active Life explores three representative figures—the royal woman, the poet, and the merchant—in relation to the concept of “office,” which Cicero linked to the health of the republic, but Chaucer to that of the common good. Not usually conjoined to the term “office,” these three figures, situated in the active life, were not firmly mapped onto the body politic, which was used to figure a relational and ordered social body ruled by the king, the head. These figures are points of entry into a set of questions rooted in Chaucer’s understanding of his cultural and historical past and in his keen appraisal of the social dynamics of his own time that also reverberate in the centuries after Chaucer’s death. Following Chaucer does not trace influence but uses Chaucer’s likely reading, circumstances, and literary and social affiliations as guides to understanding his poetry, within the context of late medieval English culture and the reshaping of the concept of these particular offices that suited the needs of a future whose dynamics he anticipated. His understanding of the importance of the Ciceronian concept of office within the active life, his profound cultural awareness, and his probing of the foundations of social change provide him with a keen sense of the persistent tensions and inconsistencies that are fundamental to his poetry.
Download or read book Geoffrey Chaucer written by Mary Flannery and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2024-07-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new critical biography of medieval England’s most famous poet. For over six centuries, Chaucer has epitomized poetic greatness, though more recent treatments of The Canterbury Tales’ lively and often risqué style have made his name more synonymous with bawdy humor. But beyond his poetic achievements, Chaucer assumed various roles including those of royal attendant, soldier, customs official, justice of the peace, and more. In this book, Mary Flannery chronicles Chaucer’s life during one of the most turbulent periods of English history, illuminating how he came to be known not only as the father of English poetry but also as England’s “merry bard.”
Download or read book Chaucer and Fame written by Isabel Davis and published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd. This book was released on 2015 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fama, or fame, is a central concern of late medieval literature. Where fame came from, who deserved it, whether it was desirable, how it was acquired and kept were significant inquiries for a culture that relied extensively on personal credit and reputation. An interest in fame was not new, being inherited from the classical world, but was renewed and rethought within the vernacular revolutions of the later Middle Ages. The work of Geoffrey Chaucer shows a preoccupation with ideas on the subject of fama, not only those received from the classical world but also those of his near contemporaries; via an engagement with their texts, he aimed to negotiate a place for his own work in the literary canon, establishing fame as the subject-site at which literary theory was contested and writerly reputation won. Chaucer's place in these negotiations was readily recognized in his aftermath, as later writers adopted and reworked postures which Chaucer had struck, in their own bids for literary place. This volume considers the debates on fama which were past, present and future to Chaucer, using his work as a centre point to investigate canon formation in European literature from the late Middle Ages and into the Early Modern period. Isabel Davis is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Birkbeck, University of London; Catherine Nall is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. Contributors: Joanna Bellis, Alcuin Blamires, Julia Boffey, Isabel Davis, Stephanie Downes, A.S.G. Edwards, Jamie C. Fumo, Andrew Galloway, Nick Havely, Thomas A. Prendergast, Mike Rodman Jones, William T. Rossiter, Elizaveta Strakhov.
Download or read book The Cambridge Introduction to Chaucer written by Alastair Minnis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively, accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the life and work of the fourteenth-century poet Geoffrey Chaucer.
Download or read book Geoffrey Chaucer written by David Wallace and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering Geoffrey Chaucer's life and work, David Wallace considers the influence and enduring appeal of his body of writing, explores the wide ranging geography and iconic characters in his stories, and discusses how Chaucer's own experiences contributed to his literature.
Download or read book Chaucer Gower Hoccleve and the Commercial Practices of Late Fourteenth Century London written by Craig E. Bertolet and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As residents of fourteenth-century London, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and Thomas Hoccleve each day encountered aspects of commerce such as buying, selling, and worrying about being cheated. Many of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales address how pervasive the market had become in personal relationships. Gower's writings include praises of the concept of trade and worries that widespread fraud has harmed it. Hoccleve's poetry examines the difficulty of living in London on a slender salary while at the same time being subject to all the temptations a rich market can provide. Each writer finds that principal tensions in London focused on commerce - how it worked, who controlled it, how it was organized, and who was excluded from it. Reading literary texts through the lens of archival documents and the sociological theories of Pierre Bourdieu, this book demonstrates how the practices of buying and selling in medieval London shaped the writings of Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve. Craig Bertolet constructs a framework that reads specific Canterbury tales and pilgrims associated with trade alongside Gower's Mirour de L'Omme and Confessio Amantis, and Hoccleve's Male Regle and Regiment of Princes. Together, these texts demonstrate how the inherent instability commerce produces also produces narratives about that commerce.
Download or read book A New Companion to Chaucer written by Peter Brown and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-06-10 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extensively revised and expanded version of the acclaimed Companion to Chaucer An essential text for both established scholars and those seeking to expand their knowledge of Chaucer studies, A New Companion to Chaucer is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of Chaucer scholarship. Rigorous yet accessible, this book helps readers to identify current debates, recognize historical and literary context, and to understand how particular concepts and theories affect the interpretation of Chaucer’s texts. Chaucer specialists from around the globe offer contributions that range from updates of long-standing scholarship on biography, language, women, and social structures, to original research in new areas such as ideology, the afterlife, patronage, and sexuality. In presenting conflicting perspectives and ideological differences, this stimulating volume encourages readers to explore additional paths of inquiry and engage in lively and informed debate. Each chapter of the Companion, organized by issues and themes, balances textual analysis and cultural context by grounding the reader in existing scholarship. Key issues from specific passages are discussed with an annotated bibliography provided for reference and further reading. Compiled with all students of Chaucer in mind, this important volume: Presents contributions from both established and emerging specialists Explores the circumstances in which Chaucer wrote, such as the political and religious issues of his time Includes numerous close readings of selected poems Provides points of entry to a wide range of approaches to Chaucer’s works Incorporates original research, fresh perspectives, and updated additions to Chaucer scholarship A New Companion to Chaucer is a valuable and enduring resource for scholars, teachers, and students of medieval literature and medieval studies, as well as the general reader interested in interpretations and historical contexts of Chaucer’s writings.
Download or read book Transporting Chaucer written by Helen Barr and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book draws on the work of the British sculptor Antony Gormley alongside more traditional literary scholarship to argue for new relationships between Chaucer’s poetry and works by others. Chaucer’s playfulness with textual history and chronology anticipates how his own work is figured in later (and earlier) texts. Conventional models of source and analogue study are re-energised to reveal unexpected, and sometimes unsettling, literary cohabitations and re-placements. The author presents innovative readings of relationships between medieval texts and early modern drama, and between literary texts and material culture. Associations between medieval architecture, pilgrim practice, manuscript illustration and the soundscapes of dramatic performance reposition how we read Chaucer’s oeuvre and what gets made of it. An invaluable resource for scholars and students of all levels with an interest in medieval English literary studies and early modern drama, Transporting Chaucer offers a new approach to how we encounter texts through time.
