The Chaucerian Biogrammar and the Takeover of Culture
- Author / Editor
- Lanham, Richard A.
The Chaucerian Biogrammar and the Takeover of Culture
- Published
- Lanham, Richard A. Literacy and the Survival of Humanism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983), pp. 41-57.
- Description
- The "homo ludens" tradition from Erasmus to Huizinga and the recent development of sociobiology reveal three motives in life and art: play, purpose, and game. Critics focusing on allegory or "idea" see purpose as Chaucer's primary motive, but his sense of game, understood in this context as "biogrammatical motive," destabilizes not only absolute meaning but also character, plot, and the boundary between poetry and life.
- Alternative Title
- Literacy and the Survival of Humanism.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Background and General Criticism
- Canterbury Tales--General
- Troilus and Criseyde