Textual Subjectivity : The Encoding of Subjectivity in Medieval Narratives and Lyrics
- Author / Editor
- Spearing, A. C.
Textual Subjectivity : The Encoding of Subjectivity in Medieval Narratives and Lyrics
- Published
- Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Physical Description
- viii, 273 pp.
- Description
- Spearing counters the assumption that all medieval narration implies a narrator. Medieval literature is permeated with subjectivity, but it is often "subjectless subjectivity," better compared to painting than to oral storytelling. Similar to twentieth-century experiments in disembodied perception, medieval fiction was just beginning to explore the possibility of representing unified consciousness.
- Examination of linguistic phenomena, such as deixis, shows how subjectivity is encoded in medieval lyrics and narratives, even though it is not represented as the product of a unitary speaking voice. Spearing considers TC, MLT, and Pity, as well as other works of Middle English literature.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Troilus and Criseyde.
- Man of Law and His Tale.
- Complaint unto Pity.