Psychoanalytic Politics: Chaucer and Two Peasants

Description: Examines the "unconscious content" of RvT through a number of Chaucer's own "identifications": with Sir Edmund de la Pole, owner of the mill at Trumpington and brother of Sir Roger de la Pole; with Symkyn and the exorbitance of his social pretensions; and with John and Aleyn, who retreat to their place of privilege (Soler Hall) after beating Symkyn at his game. Harwood concludes that "ignoring textual features leading to what an author has repressed will miss an essential way the text functions within material history" (17).