'Auctoritee' and the Knight's Tale

Author / Editor
Justman, Stewart.

Title
'Auctoritee' and the Knight's Tale

Published
Modern Language Quarterly 39 (1978): 3-14.

Description
The workings of "auctoritee" in KnT are at odds with established--especially Boethian--norms. All authority in KnT is overthrown. Habitually in Chaucer's works, authority is subjected to uncongenial contexts and the presumption of irony. As a model for what follows, KnT does not assert the timeless, formal nature of good, but its ambiguities and contradictions.

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale.