The Narrative Art of the "Canterbury Tales": A Critical Study of the Major Poems
- Author / Editor
- Bishop, Ian.
The Narrative Art of the "Canterbury Tales": A Critical Study of the Major Poems
- Published
- London and Melbourne: Everyman's University Library, 1987.
- Description
- Reviews various theories about the overall design of CT, warning that individual tales can be ignored, though CT is greater than the sum of its parts, and that Chaucer's final intentions concerning the order of the tales are unknown. In an analysis unclutttered by modern critical theory, Bishop concentrates upon the "achievement of constituent parts" and examines the settings and contexts for the tales.
- Under the classification of "gentilesse," he treats KnT, FranT, SqT, and Th; under "harlotrie," MilT, RvT, and ShT; under tales that use exempla, NPT, MkT, and PardT; under the quest for meed, FrT, SumT, and CYT; under "wyves" and the art of persuasion, WBP, WBT, ClT, MerT, and FranT; under "gems of chastity," PhyT and PrT; under "moralite," ManT and NPT.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Canterbury Tales--General.