Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun

Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun PDF Author: John M. Fyler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107321107
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description
Medieval commentaries on the origin and history of language used biblical history, from Creation to the Tower of Babel, as their starting-point, and described the progressive impairment of an originally perfect language. Biblical and classical sources raised questions for both medieval poets and commentators about the nature of language, its participation in the Fall, and its possible redemption. John M. Fyler focuses on how three major poets - Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun - participated in these debates about language. He offers fresh analyses of how the history of language is described and debated in the Divine Comedy, the Canterbury Tales and the Roman de la Rose. While Dante follows the Augustinian idea of the Fall and subsequent redemption of language, Jean de Meun and Chaucer are skeptical about the possibilities for linguistic redemption and resign themselves, at least half-comically, to the linguistic implications of the Fall and the declining world.

Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun

Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun PDF Author: John M. Fyler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107321107
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Get Book Here

Book Description
Medieval commentaries on the origin and history of language used biblical history, from Creation to the Tower of Babel, as their starting-point, and described the progressive impairment of an originally perfect language. Biblical and classical sources raised questions for both medieval poets and commentators about the nature of language, its participation in the Fall, and its possible redemption. John M. Fyler focuses on how three major poets - Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun - participated in these debates about language. He offers fresh analyses of how the history of language is described and debated in the Divine Comedy, the Canterbury Tales and the Roman de la Rose. While Dante follows the Augustinian idea of the Fall and subsequent redemption of language, Jean de Meun and Chaucer are skeptical about the possibilities for linguistic redemption and resign themselves, at least half-comically, to the linguistic implications of the Fall and the declining world.

A New Companion to Chaucer

A New Companion to Chaucer PDF Author: Peter Brown
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118902238
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
The extensively revised and expanded version of the acclaimed Companion to Chaucer An essential text for both established scholars and those seeking to expand their knowledge of Chaucer studies, A New Companion to Chaucer is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of Chaucer scholarship. Rigorous yet accessible, this book helps readers to identify current debates, recognize historical and literary context, and to understand how particular concepts and theories affect the interpretation of Chaucer’s texts. Chaucer specialists from around the globe offer contributions that range from updates of long-standing scholarship on biography, language, women, and social structures, to original research in new areas such as ideology, the afterlife, patronage, and sexuality. In presenting conflicting perspectives and ideological differences, this stimulating volume encourages readers to explore additional paths of inquiry and engage in lively and informed debate. Each chapter of the Companion, organized by issues and themes, balances textual analysis and cultural context by grounding the reader in existing scholarship. Key issues from specific passages are discussed with an annotated bibliography provided for reference and further reading. Compiled with all students of Chaucer in mind, this important volume: Presents contributions from both established and emerging specialists Explores the circumstances in which Chaucer wrote, such as the political and religious issues of his time Includes numerous close readings of selected poems Provides points of entry to a wide range of approaches to Chaucer’s works Incorporates original research, fresh perspectives, and updated additions to Chaucer scholarship A New Companion to Chaucer is a valuable and enduring resource for scholars, teachers, and students of medieval literature and medieval studies, as well as the general reader interested in interpretations and historical contexts of Chaucer’s writings.

Dante and the Sense of Transgression

Dante and the Sense of Transgression PDF Author: William Franke
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441160426
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
William Franke reads Dante's poetic language in the Paradiso in the light of contemporary critical theory by such thinkers as Derrida, Blanchot and Bataille.

Lay Piety and Religious Discipline in Middle English Literature

Lay Piety and Religious Discipline in Middle English Literature PDF Author: Nicole R. Rice
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052189607X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Winner of the Medieval Academy of America's 2013 John Nicholas Brown Prize!

English Alliterative Verse

English Alliterative Verse PDF Author: Eric Weiskott
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107169658
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
A revisionary account of the 900-year-long history of a major poetic tradition, explored through metrics and literary history.

The Theology of Debt in Late Medieval English Literature

The Theology of Debt in Late Medieval English Literature PDF Author: Anne Schuurman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 100938595X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Anne Schuurman makes the striking argument that medieval literature engenders the spirit of capitalism by defining the sinner as debtor.

The Linguistic Past in Twelfth-Century Britain

The Linguistic Past in Twelfth-Century Britain PDF Author: Sara Harris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316851559
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
How was the complex history of Britain's languages understood by twelfth-century authors? This book argues that the social, political and linguistic upheavals that occurred in the wake of the Norman Conquest intensified later interest in the historicity of languages. An atmosphere of enquiry fostered vernacular literature's prestige and led to a newfound sense of how ancient languages could be used to convey historical claims. The vernacular hence became an important site for the construction and memorialisation of dynastic, institutional and ethnic identities. This study demonstrates the breadth of interest in the linguistic past across different social groups and the striking variety of genre used to depict it, including romance, legal translation, history, poetry and hagiography. Through a series of detailed case studies, Sara Harris shows how specific works represent key aspects of the period's imaginative engagement with English, Brittonic, Latin and French language development.

Narrating the Crusades

Narrating the Crusades PDF Author: Lee Manion
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107057817
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The first study to demonstrate how English literature continued to engage with crusading from medieval romances right through to Shakespeare.

The Experience of Education in Anglo-Saxon Literature

The Experience of Education in Anglo-Saxon Literature PDF Author: Irina Dumitrescu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110827160X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Anglo-Saxons valued education yet understood how precarious it could be, alternately bolstered and undermined by fear, desire, and memory. They praised their teachers in official writing, but composed and translated scenes of instruction that revealed the emotional and cognitive complexity of learning. Irina Dumitrescu explores how early medieval writers used fictional representations of education to explore the relationship between teacher and student. These texts hint at the challenges of teaching and learning: curiosity, pride, forgetfulness, inattention, and despair. Still, these difficulties are understood to be part of the dynamic process of pedagogy, not simply a sign of its failure. The book demonstrates the enduring concern of Anglo-Saxon authors with learning throughout Old English and Latin poems, hagiographies, histories, and schoolbooks.

Paper in Medieval England

Paper in Medieval England PDF Author: Orietta Da Rold
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108896790
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Orietta Da Rold provides a detailed analysis of the coming of paper to medieval England, and its influence on the literary and non-literary culture of the period. Looking beyond book production, Da Rold maps out the uses of paper and explains the success of this technology in medieval culture, considering how people interacted with it and how it affected their lives. Offering a nuanced understanding of how affordance influenced societal choices, Paper in Medieval England draws on a multilingual array of sources to investigate how paper circulated, was written upon, and was deployed by people across medieval society, from kings to merchants, to bishops, to clerks and to poets, contributing to an understanding of how medieval paper changed communication and shaped modernity.