'It may nat be': Chaucer, Derrida, and the Impossibility of Gift
- Author / Editor
- Mahowald, Kyle.
'It may nat be': Chaucer, Derrida, and the Impossibility of Gift
- Published
- Studies in the Age of Chaucer 32 (2010): 129-50.
- Description
- Similar to gift giving as theorized by Jacques Derrida (in response to Marcel Mauss), the dividing of the fart in SumT is "an impossible" that prompts logical deliberation and logocentric reflection. Linked via punning, the giving of money in SumT is analogous to fart dividing, so the fart scene is an apt "coda" to the Tale. Both gifts-that-are-non-gifts align with the concerns of exchange, gifting, and language in FranT, occupatio in SqT, and the tale-telling contest of CT.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Summoner and His Tale
- Language and Word Studies
- Franklin and His Tale
- Squire and His Tale