The Medieval Sinner: Characterization and Confession in the Literature of the English Middle Ages
- Author / Editor
- Braswell, Mary Flowers.
The Medieval Sinner: Characterization and Confession in the Literature of the English Middle Ages
- Published
- London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1983.
- Description
- From thirteenth-century sermons and confessional manuals we see attitudes toward penance and moral behavior reflected in the works of Langland, Gower, the "Pearl" poet, and Chaucer. Chaucer treats CT sinners with unusual humor and irony. Penitential motifs begin in the prologues to the tales and culminate in Ret, a humorous, ironic confession of "literary sins."
- Chaucer Subjects
- Background and General Criticism.
- Canterbury Tales--General.