Medieval Literary Careers: The Theban Track
- Author / Editor
- Edwards, Robert R.
Medieval Literary Careers: The Theban Track
- Published
- Patrick Cheney and Frederick A. de Armas, eds. European Literary Careers: The Author from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), pp. 104-28.
- Description
- The twin rubrics of succession and invention guide Statius's response to Virgil and, in turn, Boccaccio's response to Statius, Chaucer's responses to Boccaccio, and Lydgate's response to Chaucer. By exploiting the silences of their predecessors, the medieval authors of Thebes create dynamic rather than teleological careers for themselves. In Anel and KnT, Chaucer suppresses Boccaccio's eroticism and reclaims Statian political concerns; in Siege of Thebes, Lydgate advocates abandoning the heroic enterprise.
- Contributor
- Cheney, Patrick, ed.
- de Armas, Frederick A., ed.
- Alternative Title
- European Literary Careers: The Author from Antiquity to the Renaissance.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.