Geoffrey Chaucer and the Poetics of Disguise

Description: Identifies how and where Chaucer's poetry engages contemporary society and politics, as well as how it adjusts to changes in these arenas. As a court poet, Chaucer was knowledgeable about worldly affairs but unwilling to comment or criticize openly. Close reading of BD, HF, and PF shows how Chaucer used the dream-vision form to speak out "without seeming to." In TC, LGW, and Anel, he used "the distant past as a cover for his reflections on his own time."; Developing "new forms of disguises" in CT, he strove to avoid censure while commenting on courtly imbroglios and general ethical concerns. Quinn discusses several of Chaucer's short poems (especially Pity, Mars, Purse, and the Boethian poems) and comments on the chronological development of Chaucer's "poetics of disguise."

Chaucer Subjects: Book of the Duchess; House of Fame; Parliament of Fowls; Anelida and Arcite; Troilus and Criseyde; Legend of Good Women; Canterbury Tales--General; Lyrics and Short Poems; Chaucer's Life