The Sources of Chaucer's Poetics

Description: Studies Chaucer's stylistic techniques, comparing several texts (KnT, MLT, PhyT, MkT, ManT, and LGW) with sources to show that Chaucer employed a style that was remarkably consistent across genres, rather than appropriating the styles of source texts. Chaucer's narrative elements are tightly controlled and chronological, although commentary and complaint sometimes modify the impression of control. Rhetorical figures articulating aspects of narration abound, with similes outnumbering metaphors (which are usually conventional). This consistency (with the notabable exception of MkT) qualifies the traditional belief that Chaucer adapted his techniques to reflect differences among CT narrators. Echoes of the styles of sources remain, however, particularly when the source is Ovid.

Chaucer Subjects: Style and Versification; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations; Knight and His Tale; Man of Law and His Tale; Physician and His Tale; Monk and His Tale; Manciple and His Tale; Legend of Good Women