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Chaucer in Context

A Golden Age of English Poetry

by Gerald Morgan (Volume editor)
©2012 Edited Collection XII, 310 Pages

Summary

The study of the work of Geoffrey Chaucer – still regarded as a literary genius more than 600 years after his death – centres on the problems of detailed readings of his poetry (including in some cases the textual authority for these readings) and the historical context that gives them meaning. In some ways, the modern understanding of the shaping historical context was undermined in the second half of the twentieth century by the dogmatism of Robertsonian Augustinianism, as a basis for the interpretation of medieval literature in general and of Chaucer’s poetry in particular, and at the same time by the reactions of determined opposition provoked by this approach. Undeniably, medieval views often fail to coincide with modern ones and they are frequently uncomfortable for modern readers. Nevertheless, Chaucer’s brilliance as an observer of the human scene coexists with and irradiates these unfamiliar medieval ideas. The essays in this volume explore in detail the historical context of Chaucer’s poetry, in which orthodox Catholic ideas rather than revolutionary Wycliffite ones occupy the central position. At the same time, they offer detailed readings of his poetry and that of his famous contemporaries in an attempt to do justice to the independent and original work of these poetic masters, writing in the great royal households of England in the period 1360-1400.

Details

Pages
XII, 310
Year
2012
ISBN (PDF)
9783035302639
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034307659
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0353-0263-9
Language
English
Publication date
2012 (March)
Keywords
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Robertsonian Augustinianism 1360-1400 Geoffrey Chaucer
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2012. XII, 310 pp.

Biographical notes

Gerald Morgan (Volume editor)

Gerald Morgan was formerly a Senior Lecturer and Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. His publications include The Tragic Argument of Troilus and Criseyde (2005) and The Shaping of English Poetry: Essays on ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Langland, Chaucer and Spenser (Peter Lang, 2010).

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Title: Chaucer in Context
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322 pages