The Anxiety of Exclusion: Speech, Power, and Chaucer's Manciple

Author / Editor
Bertolet, Craig E.

Title
The Anxiety of Exclusion: Speech, Power, and Chaucer's Manciple

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 33 (2011): 183-218.

Description
Reads CYP and ManPT in light of Agamben's theories of sovereignty and exclusion and de Certeau's notion of a "person in-between," considering as well several instances of slander and accusation in late-medieval London records. London, the Host, and Phebus are all sites of sovereign power (defined by the ability to except), while the Manciple's mother embodies a "critique of sovereignty" (216), part of Chaucer's concern with the "insecurity of public utterance" (191).

Chaucer Subjects
Manciple and His Tale
Canon's Yeoman and His Tale