Allegory, Allegoresis, and the Deallegorization of Language: The 'Roman de la Rose,' the 'De planctu naturae' and the 'Parlement of Foules'

Author / Editor
Quilligan, Maureen.

Title
Allegory, Allegoresis, and the Deallegorization of Language: The 'Roman de la Rose,' the 'De planctu naturae' and the 'Parlement of Foules'

Published
Morton W. Bloomfield, ed. Allegory, Myth, and Symbol. Harvard English Studies, no. 9 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 163-83.

Description
Distinguishing the process of allegory from the nature of allegoresis, Chaucer deallegorizes his sources. He addresses not a reader but an "auditor," who is not asked to judge his own interpretive procedures. Jean de Meun defends the use of slang for explaining the truth; Chaucer bases his defense on verisimilitude. PF is deliberately unallegorical.

Contributor
Bloomfield, Morton W.,ed.

Alternative Title
Allegory, Myth, and Symbol.

Chaucer Subjects
Parliament of Fowls.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.