Nominalism: The Difference for Chaucer and Boccaccio
- Author / Editor
- Boucher, Holly Wallace.
Nominalism: The Difference for Chaucer and Boccaccio
- Published
- Chaucer Review 20 (1986): 213-20.
- Description
- The century between Dante and Boccaccio saw the poet's role as prophet deteriorate. Boccaccio and Chaucer found a middle road between blasphemy and reverence wherein language has its own independent set of standards, as one sees in comparing the tale of Fra Cipolla and SumT. Nominalism (Ockham) brought into question the relationship between language and reality. The poet could no longer play the role of prophet.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Background and General Criticism.
- Summoner and His Tale.