Allegory and Materiality: Medieval Foundations of the Modern Debate

Description: Modern notions of the "key role of materiality in allegory," as theorized by Walter Benjamin and echoed by Paul de Man, have clear precedents in patristic and medieval commentaries on allegory and supposition, although the sense of "material" is more broadly construed in medieval thought. In PardPT, Chaucer explores the materiality of allegory, the random contingency of reference, and the self-referential nature of the allegorical mode.