Chaucer's Agents: Cause and Representation in Chaucerian NarrativeChaucer's Agents draws on medieval and modern theories of agency to provide fresh readings of the major Chaucerian texts. Collectively, those readings aim to illuminate Chaucer's responses to two greta problems of agency: the degree to which human beings and forces qualify as agents, and the equal reference of "agent" to initiators and instruments. Each chapter surveys medieval conceptions of the agency in question-- allegorical Realities, intelligent animals, pagan gods, women, and the author--and then follows that kind of agent through representative Chaucerian texts. Readers have long recognized Chaucer's interest in questions of causation; Van Dyke shows that his answers to those questions shape, even constitute, his narratives. --Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. |
From inside the book
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Page 13
... give speech to that which has no lan- guage , to the bird perching on the edge of the gutter , to the tree in spring and the tree in fall , to stone , to cement , to plastic .... Was this not perhaps what Ovid was aiming at , when he ...
... give speech to that which has no lan- guage , to the bird perching on the edge of the gutter , to the tree in spring and the tree in fall , to stone , to cement , to plastic .... Was this not perhaps what Ovid was aiming at , when he ...
Page 20
... gives prece- dence to the verb , the act ; " that which " is subject to inference and can include both immediate and ultimate causes . Aristotle taught that causation will normally be multiple — formal , material , efficient , and final ...
... gives prece- dence to the verb , the act ; " that which " is subject to inference and can include both immediate and ultimate causes . Aristotle taught that causation will normally be multiple — formal , material , efficient , and final ...
Page 23
... popes relied on the doctrine of plenitudo potestatis , first mentioned by St. Bernard , " so as to give [ them ] a practically absolute position in Church government and even . . . in secular affairs 1 / INTRODUCTION 23.
... popes relied on the doctrine of plenitudo potestatis , first mentioned by St. Bernard , " so as to give [ them ] a practically absolute position in Church government and even . . . in secular affairs 1 / INTRODUCTION 23.
Page 28
... gives meaning to mental structures ; " the will is the irreducible agent in whatever is good or bad . " 89 But the nominalists ' challenge to Realist agency is just as com- plex as their assault on centralized political authority ...
... gives meaning to mental structures ; " the will is the irreducible agent in whatever is good or bad . " 89 But the nominalists ' challenge to Realist agency is just as com- plex as their assault on centralized political authority ...
Page 36
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Contents
13 | |
Dreaming the Real Chaucer Does Allegory | 40 |
Beyond Canacees Ring Animal Agency in Three Canterbury Tales | 73 |
He that alle thing may bynde The Agency of Chaucers Pagan Gods | 108 |
Goode women maydenes and wyves Exemplary Agency and Its Discontents | 148 |
That Am Nat I The Wife of Bath Criseyde and the Possibility of Subjective Agency | 180 |
Other editions - View all
Chaucer's Agents: Cause and Representation in Chaucerian Narrative Carolynn Van Dyke No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
acknowledges acts agent allegory animals auctor authorial agency authorship beast birds Boccaccio Boethian Book Cambridge Canterbury Canterbury Tales Cecilia characters Chau Chaucer Review Chaucerian Chauntecleer Christian citing Clerk's Tale Criseyde's critics crow Custance Delany discourse divine Donaldson Dorigen dream edited female fictional Franklin's Tale Gender Geoffrey Chaucer Griselda herte House of Fame human Ibid individual instance irony Jill Mann Knight's Tale L. D. Benson Law's Tale Leicester literary Literature Manciple's Mann Mars Medieval Melibee Middle Ages Minnis moral narrative narrator narrator's natural notes Nun's Priest's Tale Ockham Oxford Guides pagan gods Pandarus Parliament of Fowls particular Patterson Pearsall persona personification philosophers pilgrims poem poet Poetics Poetry Prioress Prologue readers representation represents rhetorical Riverside Chaucer Romance sexual shal similarly SNPro social Squire's Tale story suggests tale's textual thyng tion Troilus and Criseyde Troilus's University Press Venus vision voice WBPro Wife of Bath Windeatt women writes
References to this book
Singing the New Song: Literacy and Liturgy in Late Medieval England Katherine Zieman No preview available - 2008 |