Obscure Language, Unclear Literature: Theory and Practice from Quintilian to the Enlightenment

Author / Editor
Mehtonen, Päivi.

Title
Obscure Language, Unclear Literature: Theory and Practice from Quintilian to the Enlightenment

Published
Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2003.

Physical Description
228 pp.

Description
A "premodern conceptual history" of obscurity in literature, with emphasis on rhetorical traditions, philosophy, and exegesis. Includes comments on Mel and Th as literary examples of the "vices of narration" described in rhetorical handbooks.

Contributor
MacGilleon, Robert, trans.

Chaucer Subjects
Tale of Sir Thopas
Tale of Melibee