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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... Philosophers denied reality of univer- sal ideas but acknowledged their force as mental representations . Textual schol- ars and poets simultaneously down- played and emphasized human author- ship . Chaucer responded to those fluctu ...
... Philosophers denied reality of univer- sal ideas but acknowledged their force as mental representations . Textual schol- ars and poets simultaneously down- played and emphasized human author- ship . Chaucer responded to those fluctu ...
Page 17
... philosopher writes of agency that " when everything that can be explained has been explained , there remains something that in a prima facie sense is both indispensable and needs no further ex- planation . " 21 Further explanation is ...
... philosopher writes of agency that " when everything that can be explained has been explained , there remains something that in a prima facie sense is both indispensable and needs no further ex- planation . " 21 Further explanation is ...
Page 18
... philosophers as a spiritual or angelic substance that reveals supra- sensible reality.26 And readers of Chaucer can include the kinds of agent that various readers have taken as central to his texts — lifelike characters , allegorical ...
... philosophers as a spiritual or angelic substance that reveals supra- sensible reality.26 And readers of Chaucer can include the kinds of agent that various readers have taken as central to his texts — lifelike characters , allegorical ...
Page 19
... philosophers ' usage seems to be more widespread . Semanticists define an agent as " the entity that performs an action , " like the philosopher's " beginner of motion . " Similarly , literary scholars imply that agents initiate acts ...
... philosophers ' usage seems to be more widespread . Semanticists define an agent as " the entity that performs an action , " like the philosopher's " beginner of motion . " Similarly , literary scholars imply that agents initiate acts ...
Page 27
... philosophers , concerned with the kinds of metaphysical agency to which I now turn . Probably the most notable is William of Ockham ( c . 1280-1349 ) . In his political writings , Ockham opposed the doctrine of plenitudo potestatis and ...
... philosophers , concerned with the kinds of metaphysical agency to which I now turn . Probably the most notable is William of Ockham ( c . 1280-1349 ) . In his political writings , Ockham opposed the doctrine of plenitudo potestatis and ...
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 |