Telling Images: Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative II
- Author / Editor
- Kolve, V. A.
Telling Images: Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative II
- Published
- Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2009.
- Physical Description
- xxxiii, 368 pp. b&w illus.
- Description
- Reprints six of Kolve's essays on visual imagery and iconography in Chaucer and medieval literature and adds two new ones—both on MerT: "Of Calendars and Cuckoldry (1): January and May in The Merchant's Tale" (pp. 93-122) and "Of Calendars and Cuckoldry (2): The Sun in Gemini and The Merchant's Tale" (pp. 123-70). In the two new essays, Kolve provides visual background for January and May and for the pear-tree episode of MerT from medieval and early modern calendar traditions. He argues that these traditions underlie the characterizations in MerT and affirm the fabliau erotics of the conclusion, despite countervailing concerns with the Fall of Man. About forty-five black-and-white illustrations accompany the two essays.
- Alternative Title
- "Of Calendars and Cuckoldry (1): January and May in The Merchant's Tale."
- "Of Calendars and Cuckoldry (2): The Sun in Gemini and The Merchant's Tale."
- Chaucer Subjects
- Merchant and His Tale
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations