Renaming the Sins: A Homiletic Topos of Linguistic Instability in the 'Canterbury Tales'

Author / Editor
Ashley, Kathleen M.

Title
Renaming the Sins: A Homiletic Topos of Linguistic Instability in the 'Canterbury Tales'

Published
Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney, eds. Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 272-93.

Description
From preaching tradition Chaucer borrowed the "topos" of renaming the sins "to make them seem more attractive to sinners," a "topos" that took two major forms: "a narrative "exemplum" about the Devil's unmarriageable daughters," and a "non-narrative exposition about whitewashing sin by euphemistically renaming it."
Chaucer's narrative technique causes reader ambiguity about the point of view: Chaucer's, Geoffrey's, or the pilgrims',as is demonstrated in the GP Friar, MerT, ShT, MLP, WBP, SumT, and in Harry Bailly, the Host. CT "presents a linguistically unreliable world...dominated by euphemistic language and self-justifying rhetoric" coupled with a "continual deferring of moral conclusion."

Alternative Title
Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General.