The History and Anatomy of Auctorial Self-Criticism in the European Middle Ages

Author / Editor
Obermeier, Anita.

Title
The History and Anatomy of Auctorial Self-Criticism in the European Middle Ages

Published
Amsterdam and Atlanta, Ga. : Rodopi, 1999.

Physical Description
314 pp.

Series
Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, no. 32.

Description
Surveys authorial apologies in literature from the classical period to the late Middle Ages, discussing classical tradition, Christian tradition, medieval Latin tradition, and medieval vernacular literatures, including German, French, Italian, English, and Spanish. Includes a section on women writers in the Middle Ages. The section on Chaucer explores how he uses apology to justify his writings and place them into tradition, disclaiming and simultaneously asserting his uses of pagan material, sexuality, and blunt language. Discusses Troilus and Criseyde, The Legend of Good Women Prologue, A Treatise on the Astrolabe, and The Canterbury Tales, especially Chaucer's Retraction.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General.
Chaucer's Retraction.
Troilus and Criseyde.
Legend of Good Women.
Treatise on the Astrolabe.