Plague, Panic Space, and the Tragic Medieval Household

Author / Editor
Smith, D. Vance.

Title
Plague, Panic Space, and the Tragic Medieval Household

Published
South Atlantic Quarterly 98: 367-414, 1999.

Description
Like Freud and Boethius, Chaucer views tragedy as the temporal transformation of a literal or figurative space. Integral to this understanding of tragedy is the notion of memory as a function of death, a relationship apparent in BD, MkT, and HF. Moreover, an examination of KnT reveals that, for Theseus, "neither the making of a counter-narrative ('som comedye,' for instance) nor the evacuation of place fully acknowledges the presence of death within his own kingdom."

Chaucer Subjects
Knight and His Tale.
Monk and His Tale.
Book of the Duchess.
House of Fame.