Serious Play: Desire and Authority in the Poetry of Ovid, Chaucer, and Ariosto

Author / Editor
Hanning, Robert W.

Title
Serious Play: Desire and Authority in the Poetry of Ovid, Chaucer, and Ariosto

Published
New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

Physical Description
xviii, 286 pp.

Description
Considers "social and political crises that activate the comic poetry" of Ovid, Chaucer, and Ariosto. In particular, chapter 2, "Chaucer: Dealing with the Authorities, Or, Twisting the Nose That Feeds You," addresses Chaucer's humor as it relates to desire and authority in BD, TC, HF, PF, LGW, and CT. Hanning emphasizes how "crises of desire and authority" in each work provide "ample opportunities for comic treatment of cultural and political issues of obvious importance to the poet" (125).

Alternative Title
"Chaucer: Dealing with the Authorities, Or, Twisting the Nose That Feeds You."

Chaucer Subjects
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Book of the Duchess
House of Fame
Parliament of Fowls
Troilus and Criseyde
Legend of Good Women
Canterbury Tales--General