The Literary Context Of Chaucer S Fabliaux

The presence of so many fabliaux in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is intriguing in its own right, given the fact that there are no real fabliaux in Middle English befor Chaucer. But these stories are also interesting as instances of a concept and practice thas has received little critical attention so far, namely 'analogy', the writing and, above all, recognition of 'similar' stories. How to account for the literary practice that enables us to perceive stories as similar, c.q. analogous? This original study sets out to explore this phenomenon, first tentatively vis-?)vis other terms and practices (Translation, Borrowing, Adaptation, Version) and then, in the major part of the book, in a pragmatic-structuralist analysis of four salient components of narrative--Plot, Character, Thematics, and Genre--each illustrated with examples taken from Chaucer's fabliaux and their analogues in various European languages.In each of the four chapters the key-issue is Categorisation and Hertog traces its evolution and usefulness a a concept from Wittgenstein's family resemblances' and Zadeh's 'fuzzy set theory' to E. Rosch's Prototype theory. The conclusion draws attention to two aspects which set Chaucer's fabliaux very much apart from the other analogues: their contextuality within the polylogue of the Canterbury Tales, and secondly, their explicit intertextuality which invites us to look anew at the assumptions of traditional source-criticism. The study ends with some theoretical reflections on analogy and an attempt at definition.The book will interest not only Chaucerians and other medievalists but also scholars in literarry theory and interpretation.

Fabliaux constitute one of the most entertaining genres in medieval literature. Most students of the period associate these comic and often licentious tales with Chaucer and Boccaccio, but they form a larger body of literature well worth study in its own right.

The Oxford History of Poetry in English is designed to offer a fresh, multi-voiced, and comprehensive analysis of 'poetry': from Anglo-Saxon culture through contemporary British, Irish, American, and Global culture, including English, Scottish, and Welsh poetry, Anglo-American colonial and post-colonial poetry, and poetry in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, India, Africa, Asia, and other international locales. The series both synthesizes existing scholarship and presents cutting-edge research, employing a global team of expert contributors for each of the fourteen volumes. This volume occupies both a foundational and a revolutionary place. Its opening date—1100—marks the re-emergence of a vernacular poetic record in English after the political and cultural disruption of the Norman Conquest. By its end date—1400—English poetry had become an established, if still evolving, literary tradition. The period between these dates sees major innovations and developments in language, topics, poetic forms, and means of expression. Middle English poetry reflects the influence of multiple contexts—history, social institutions, manuscript production, old and new models of versification, medieval poetic theory, and the other literary languages of England. It thus emphasizes the aesthetic, imaginative treatment of new and received materials by medieval writers and the formal craft required for their verse. Individual chapters treat the representation of national history and mythology, contemporary issues, and the shared doctrine and learning provided by sacred and secular sources, including the Bible. Throughout the period, lyric and romance figure prominently as genres and poetic modes, while some works hover enticingly on the boundary of genre and discursive forms. The volume ends with chapters on the major writers of the late fourteenth-century (Langland, the Gawain-poet, Chaucer, and Gower) and with a look forward to the reception of something like a national literary tradition in fifteenth-century literary culture.

Originally published in 1984, this book features The French Fabliau alongisde a translation and textual notes. The original manuscript, formerly labeled Bibliotheque du Roi 7218, is rightfully considered the oldest and one of the two most imporant and complete collections of medieval literature.

Old and Middle English literature can be obscure and challenging. So, too, can the vast body of criticism it has elicited. Yet the masters of medieval literature often drew on similar texts, since imitation was admired. For this reason, recent scholarship has often focused on the importance of genre. The genre in which a work was written can illuminate the author's intentions and the text's meaning. Read in light of a genre's parameters, a given work can be considered in relation to other works within the same category. This reference is a comprehensive overview of Old and Middle English literature. Chapters focus on particular genres, such as Allegorical Verse, Balladry, Beast Fable, Chronicle, Debate Poetry, Epic and Heroic, Lyric, Middle English Parody/Burlesque, Religious and Allegorical Verse, and Romance. Expert contributors define the primary characteristics of each genre and discuss relevant literary works. Chapters provide extensive reviews of scholarship and close with detailed bibliographies. A more thorough bibliography of major scholarly studies closes the book.

Marie Borroff is a literary critic, poet and philologist as well as mediaevalist, with a particular interest in the powers and effects of poetic language. In this collection of essays she explores problems of central importance in the poetry of Chaucer and his nameless contemporary, the Gawain - or Pearl - poet. The work should be useful in the study of late-Middle English literature.

This book argues that Chaucer challenges his culture's mounting obsession with vision, constructing a model of 'manhed' that blurs the distinction between agency and passivity in a traditional gender binary.