The Hem of Philosophy: Free and Bound Motifs in the 'Franklin's Tale'

Author / Editor
Magnus, Laury.

Title
The Hem of Philosophy: Free and Bound Motifs in the 'Franklin's Tale'

Published
Assays 2 (1983): 3-18.

Description
Why the digressions in FranT? Formalist criticism identifies Dorigen's digression on the black rocks as a free (abstract) motif and, paradoxically, as an agent of the plot (normally a material motif). Thus Chaucer makes abstraction the cause of action and thereby insists on the importance of theory to "praxis" in successful storytelling and of ideals to behavior in successful living.

Chaucer Subjects
Franklin and His Tale.