The Dream of Chaucer: Representation and Reflection in the Early Narratives

Description: Argues that Chaucer's dream visions are concerned with both "mimetic representation" (the narrator's story of his dream) and aesthetic systems. Chapter 1, "The Practice of Theory," discusses Chaucer's study of Latin, Italian, and French writers to determine "the truth value of poetry."; Chapter 2 treats the role of the narrator. Three following chapters on BD, HF, and PF form the core of the book. BD is initiatory, "the beginnings of Chaucer's narrative," in which the narrator through Ovid reaches the definition of subjectivity. Compared to BD, HF gives "less weight to imagination," more to "memory as a category of aesthetic speculation."; The Problem in BD is the "cause of distraction"; in HF, the origins of dreams. HF brings Chaucer to a "philosophical dead end," for "language, including poetry, can be reduced to physical property and...as a thing it is "equivalent to other sounds"; thus, poetry exists authentically. This conclusion permits Chaucer to treat the "problem of the intellect" in PF.

Chaucer Subjects: Background and General Criticism.; Book of the Duchess.; House of Fame.; Parliament of Fowls.