Figuring Subjectivity in 'Piers Plowman C,' the Parson's 'Tale,' and 'Retraction': Authorial Insertion and Identity Poetics

Author / Editor
Pigg, Daniel F.

Title
Figuring Subjectivity in 'Piers Plowman C,' the Parson's 'Tale,' and 'Retraction': Authorial Insertion and Identity Poetics

Published
Style 31 (1997): 428-39

Description
Like the fifth "passus" in the C-text of "Piers Plowman," ParsT and Ret use confession as a means of inscribing the author's identity within the poem. Langland's "autobiographical" passage--part confession, part "apologia"--integrates his subjectivity into the poem as the penitent is integrated into the Church. Similarly Ret, in the context of ParsT, creates an identity for Chaucer through a negotiation of power between author and institution.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Retraction.
Parson and His Tale.