Geoffrey Chaucer : A Guide Through the Critical Maze

Description: A research guide that review major lines of Chaucer criticism, which is becoming increasingly diverse.; Rooney identifies two recent important trends: (1) "a movement away from everything historical and realist," focusing on "literariness and intertextuality," poetics, the role of voices, "patterns of Chaaucer's thought," and "an awareness of contemporary philosophy, cosmology, theology," and (2) abandonment of the "search for unity" and closure and "acknowledgement of contingency, plurality, uncertainty and tension."; More attention is now being given to CT and the dream poems, which lend themselves to current critical methods, while the preeminence of TC is being challenged. Critics need to examine "Chaucer's attitude toward fiction-making," taking care not to bring to his works "philosophies and ideas he never dreamed of." Rooney urges critical humility.