The Originality of Texts in a Manuscript Culture

Author / Editor
Bruns, Gerald L.

Title
The Originality of Texts in a Manuscript Culture

Published
Comparative Literature 32 (1980): 113-29.

Description
Theorizes differences between grammatical/rhetorical invention and Romantic ideas of creativity and originality, commenting on Chaucer's TC and, passingly, on his Adam Scriveyn, as well as on Petrarch's adaptation of Boccaccio's tale of Griselda, Chrétien's romances, and more. Where Chaucer asks for "scribal" literalness in Adam, his profession that he is following his sources in TC "conceals only to emphasize the richness of the grammarian-poet's embellishments," creating a kind of originality that is "inter- rather than extralinear."

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde
Adam Scriveyn