Languages of Power in the Age of Richard II
- Author / Editor
- Staley, Lynn.
Languages of Power in the Age of Richard II
- Published
- University Park : Pennsylvania State University, 2005.
- Physical Description
- xiv, 394 pp.
- Description
- Explores how late medieval English literature helps us to understand contemporary political events and aristocratic efforts to develop a successful rhetoric of power amid shifts in control. Chapter 1 focuses on Richard II, political discourse, and the discourse of courtly love in Gower, Usk, Clanvowe, and Chaucer (TC, LGWP, KnT, FranT).
- Chapter 2 considers the Merciless Parliament to be a watershed that changed the discourses of the court and courtliness, documented by chroniclers and here paralleled with political address in Valois France; considers in this light Part 7 of CT, especially MkT and NPT. Chapter 3 explores patronage, John of Gaunt, and Thomas of Woodstock; and Chapter 4 assesses the household as a political metaphor in French literature, courtesy books, several romances, and CT (MLT, ClT, Mel).
- Chaucer Subjects
- Troilus and Criseyde.
- Legend of Good Women.
- Knight and His Tale.
- Man of Law and His Tale.
- Clerk and His Tale.
- Franklin and His Tale.
- Tale of Melibee
- Monk and His Tale.
- Nun's Priest and His Tale.