Chaucer and the Making of Optical Space
- Author / Editor
- Brown, Peter.
Chaucer and the Making of Optical Space
- Published
- Oxford and New York : Peter Lang, 2007.
- Physical Description
- 377 pp.
- Description
- Brown traces classical and medieval study of optics in various kinds of writing, arguing that in the late Middle Ages the science of "perspectiva" became part of intellectual consciousness, influencing Chaucer and several of his models (Jean de Meun, Dante, and Boccaccio). Chaucer draws on his knowledge of "perspectiva" to varying degrees, superficially using the discourse of optics in SqT and drawing on discussions of defective vision in RvT and MerT. In HF, having absorbed optical principles from Dante's Commedia,
- Chaucer deploys these principles innovatively to link visual activity to spatial phenomena and identity. Brown treats the characters' visual activities and manipulations of material and symbolic spaces in BD, KnT, MilT, and TC and examines Chaucer's use of space to extend treatment of social, political, and ethical issues.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.
- Squire and His Tale.
- Reeve and His Tale.
- Merchant and His Tale.
- Book of the Duchess.
- Knight and His Tale.
- Miller and His Tale.
- Troilus and Criseyde.