Chaucer's Decameron and the Origin of the Canterbury Tales

Chaucer's Decameron and the Origin of the Canterbury Tales PDF Author: Frederick M. Biggs
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843844753
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
A major and original contribution to the debate as to Chaucer's use and knowledge of Boccaccio, finding a new source for the "Shipman's Tale". A possible direct link between the two greatest literary collections of the fourteenth century, Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, has long tantalized readers because these works share many stories, which are, moreover, placed in similar frames. And yet, although he identified many of his sources, Chaucer never mentioned Boccaccio; indeed when he retold the Decameron's final novella, his pilgrim, the Clerk, states that it was written by Petrarch. For these reasons, most scholars now believe that while Chaucer might have heard parts of the earlier collection when he was in Italy, he did not have it at hand as he wrote. This volumeaims to change our understanding of this question. It analyses the relationship between the "Shipman's Tale", originally written for the Wife of Bath, and Decameron 8.10, not seen before as a possible source. The book alsoargues that more important than the narratives that Chaucer borrowed is the literary technique that he learned from Boccaccio - to make tales from ideas. This technique, moreover, links the "Shipman's Tale" to the "Miller's Tale"and the new "Wife of Bath's Tale". Although at its core a hermeneutic argument, this book also delves into such important areas as alchemy, domestic space, economic history, folklore, Irish/English politics, manuscripts, and misogyny. FREDERICK M. BIGGS is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut.

The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales

The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales PDF Author: Leonard Michael Koff
Publisher: Associated University Presse
ISBN: 9780838638002
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
That resistance, informed by a model of literary influence grounded on the idea of interruption, would keep the Canterbury Tales away from the Decameron, though not the rest of Chaucer from other works by Boccaccio. In the end, of course, that resistance tells us more about Chaucer's reception since the fifteenth century than about Chaucer himself or his sources."--BOOK JACKET.

The Decameron

The Decameron PDF Author: Giovanni Boccaccio
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1040

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Book Description
In the time of a devastating pandemic, seven women and three men withdraw to a country estate outside Florence to give themselves a diversion from the death around them. Once there, they decide to spend some time each day telling stories, each of the ten to tell one story each day. They do this for ten days, with a few other days of rest in between, resulting in the 100 stories of the Decameron. The Decameron was written after the Black Plague spread through Italy in 1348. Most of the tales did not originate with Boccaccio; some of them were centuries old already in his time, but Boccaccio imbued them all with his distinctive style. The stories run the gamut from tragedy to comedy, from lewd to inspiring, and sometimes all of those at once. They also provide a detailed picture of daily life in fourteenth-century Italy.

Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Stories for an Uncertain World

Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Stories for an Uncertain World PDF Author: Robert W. Hanning
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192894757
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
A comparative study of Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that explores the differences and similarities between the worlds that are portrayed by each text, with a focus on the strategies and limits of personal agency, and the significance and social dynamics of story-telling.

The Clerkes Tale

The Clerkes Tale PDF Author: Chaucer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description


Social Chaucer

Social Chaucer PDF Author: Paul Strohm
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674811997
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This text analyzes the effect of Chaucer's poetry on his contemporary readers, examining how he and his audience understood their society and how this is reflected in the works. This book provides a fuller understanding of Chaucer's world and the social implications of literary styles and form.

Comedy in Chaucer and Boccaccio

Comedy in Chaucer and Boccaccio PDF Author: Carol Falvo Heffernan
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
A comparison of Chaucer and Boccaccio sheds new light on both writers, indicating their mutual use of ancient comic literary traditions. Although many of Chaucer's sources have been exhaustively studied, relatively little work has been done on the influence of his contemporary Boccaccio, a gap which this book aims to fill. It examines the relationship of the comictales, the so-called fabliaux, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio's Decameron, demonstrating that not only did Chaucer draw on Boccaccio's work, but that they shared the same comic literary tradition stretching back into antiquity. By putting the tales and the characters side-by-side, it throws new light on Chaucer's inventiveness and mode of working. Professor CAROL FALVO HEFFERNAN teaches at the Department of English, Rutgers University, New Jersey.

The Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales

The Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales PDF Author: Charles Abraham Owen
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9780859913348
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
Owen investigates what the manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales reveal about the way they came into being. [see revs] This study of the manuscripts of the Canterbury Talescalls into question previous efforts to explain the complexities, the different orderings of the tales and the extraordinary shifts in textual affiliations within the manuscripts. Owen sees the manuscripts that survive, most of them collections of all or almost all the tales, as derived from the large number of single tales and small collections that circulated after Chaucer's death. This theory takes issue with all modern editions of the Canterbury Tales, which in Owen's view reflect the effort of medieval scribes and supervisors to make a satisfactory book of the collection of fragments Chaucer left behind. It is this collection of fragments, the authentic Tales of Canterbury by Geoffrey Chaucer, which reflects the different stages of the plan that was still evolving at his death. CHARLES A. OWEN Jr is former Professor of English and Chairman of Medieval Studies at the University of Conneticut.

Chaucer's Boccaccio

Chaucer's Boccaccio PDF Author: Giovanni Boccaccio
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 9780859913492
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
`The notes are a model of economy... The introduction is quite superb... The volume as a whole is a worthy addition to a series which has already begun to establish high expectations.' TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT`It reminds us just how good Boccaccio is.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTChaucer made extensive use of Boccacio's romances as a basis for his major works, and any analysis of his handling of his sources must depend on a knowledge of the Italian poet's work.

The Canterbury Tales, The New Translation

The Canterbury Tales, The New Translation PDF Author: Gerald J. Davis
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1365188019
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
The classic collection of beloved tales, both sacred and profane, of travelers in medieval England. Complete and Unabridged.