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
... perhaps what Ovid was aiming at , when he wrote about the continuity of forms ? And what Lu- cretius was aiming at when he identified himself with that nature common to each and every thing ? —Calvino , Six Memos for the Next Millennium ...
... perhaps what Ovid was aiming at , when he wrote about the continuity of forms ? And what Lu- cretius was aiming at when he identified himself with that nature common to each and every thing ? —Calvino , Six Memos for the Next Millennium ...
Page 16
... Perhaps those critics attribute authorship to the Knight and the Wife only as a more concise way of referring to the narrating persona that Chaucer invents , acknowledging what Bakhtin calls the " personification " of all utterances ...
... Perhaps those critics attribute authorship to the Knight and the Wife only as a more concise way of referring to the narrating persona that Chaucer invents , acknowledging what Bakhtin calls the " personification " of all utterances ...
Page 17
... perhaps because it constitutes what semanticists call a " natural categor [ y ] , " one of our " universal , presumably innate , con- cepts . " 20 A philosopher writes of agency that " when everything that can be explained has been ...
... perhaps because it constitutes what semanticists call a " natural categor [ y ] , " one of our " universal , presumably innate , con- cepts . " 20 A philosopher writes of agency that " when everything that can be explained has been ...
Page 19
... perhaps in conjunction or competition with other agents but not as the instruments of a " principal . " Surprisingly , the difference between these two senses of agency— what I will call primary and secondary agency — is acknowledged by ...
... perhaps in conjunction or competition with other agents but not as the instruments of a " principal . " Surprisingly , the difference between these two senses of agency— what I will call primary and secondary agency — is acknowledged by ...
Page 21
... perhaps from cre- ation stories — are continuously governed by one level of agency . Per- haps the queen's heart was already weak ; perhaps her culture co- erced widows toward early death ; perhaps her enemies poisoned the king ...
... perhaps from cre- ation stories — are continuously governed by one level of agency . Per- haps the queen's heart was already weak ; perhaps her culture co- erced widows toward early death ; perhaps her enemies poisoned the king ...
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 |