The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval Romance
- Author / Editor
- Heffernan, Carol F.
The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval Romance
- Published
- Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y. : Boydell and Brewer, 2003.
- Physical Description
- x, 160 pp.
- Series
- Studies in Medieval Romance
- Description
- A series of studies focusing on depictions of the Orient and people from the Orient in medieval romances: MLT, Dido and Cleopatra from LGW, SqT, "Floris and Blauncheflur," and "Le Bone Florence." The introduction concentrates on how contact with the East during the Crusades encouraged the development of romance in the West.
- Heffernan compares MLT with analogous tales in Gower and Boccaccio to show how Chaucer emphasizes the role of merchants in contact with the East. The orientalism of Dido and Cleopatra is expressed in terms of pleasure and sexual excess. In SqT, Chaucer experiments with combining oriental plot and western "interlace" technique.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Man of Law and His Tale.
- Legend of Good Women.
- Squire and His Tale.