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 17
... political science , philos- ophy , theology , and such late - bloomers as cultural studies . And Chaucerians , including some whose approaches I have just cri- tiqued , cite agency as a central issue , notion , or problem.19 But agency ...
... political science , philos- ophy , theology , and such late - bloomers as cultural studies . And Chaucerians , including some whose approaches I have just cri- tiqued , cite agency as a central issue , notion , or problem.19 But agency ...
Page 19
... political scientist James E. Block calls the United States A Nation of Agents , he refers to an unstable compound of directing and dele- gated agency : " initiative without autonomy , . . . the power to move but not to direct the ...
... political scientist James E. Block calls the United States A Nation of Agents , he refers to an unstable compound of directing and dele- gated agency : " initiative without autonomy , . . . the power to move but not to direct the ...
Page 23
... political power , scholastic philosophy , and representa- tions of literary authorship . Rulers and Their Agents 9947 Students of the Middle Ages generally reject the notion , common mostly among nonmedievalists , that the period was ...
... political power , scholastic philosophy , and representa- tions of literary authorship . Rulers and Their Agents 9947 Students of the Middle Ages generally reject the notion , common mostly among nonmedievalists , that the period was ...
Page 24
... political consolidation also led to a kind of dispersal . Al- though the popes ' plenitudo potestatis denoted what we would expect it to , monolithic authority , Edward I used plena potestas in insisting that delegates to the Parliament ...
... political consolidation also led to a kind of dispersal . Al- though the popes ' plenitudo potestatis denoted what we would expect it to , monolithic authority , Edward I used plena potestas in insisting that delegates to the Parliament ...
Page 25
... political agency : Florence's " broad - based associative polity " and the " downward - descending princely power " in Lombardy.67 Versions of those models were beginning to clash in London , as Wallace also indicates.68 And of course ...
... political agency : Florence's " broad - based associative polity " and the " downward - descending princely power " in Lombardy.67 Versions of those models were beginning to clash in London , as Wallace also indicates.68 And of course ...
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 |