Chaucer's Agents
Author | : Carolynn Van Dyke |
Publisher | : Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |
Total Pages | : 388 |
Release | : 2005 |
ISBN-10 | : 0838640834 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780838640838 |
Rating | : 4/5 (34 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Chaucer'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.