Chaucer After Smithfield : From Postcolonial Writer to Imperialist Author

Author / Editor
Bowers, John M.

Title
Chaucer After Smithfield : From Postcolonial Writer to Imperialist Author

Published
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, ed. The Postcolonial Middle Ages (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000), pp. 53-66.

Description
Reads CT as a "decolonizing project" and a "narrative of nationhood" whereby Chaucer resisted Richard II's renewed attachment to French culture and took steps to invent English society. Assesses how several issues in CT reflect English postcolonial separation from France through assertions of England's cultural imperialism. Discusses history, language and dialect, the role of London, and the themes of bourgeois love and acquisitiveness.

Alternative Title
Postcolonial Middle Ages.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General.
Language and Word Studies.
Chaucer's Life.