Gossip's Work : The Problems and Pleasures of Not-So-Idle Talk in Late Medieval England

Author / Editor
Phillips, Susan Elizabeth.

Title
Gossip's Work : The Problems and Pleasures of Not-So-Idle Talk in Late Medieval England

Published
Dissertation Abstracts International 60 (1999): 4004A, 1999.

Description
Gossip, its meaning shifting from idle woman to idle talk, was treated as sinful and suspect in much clerical literature, including ParsT. Gossip in HF, WBP, and ShT provided Chaucer not only narrative techniques but also a method of experimentation with narrative. Phillips analyzes other works, especially Dunbar's.

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies.
House of Fame.
Parson and His Tale.
Shipman and His Tale.
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.