Semiotic Perception and the Problem of Chaucer's 'Prejudice'

Author / Editor
Smith, Marcus A. J., and Julian N. Wasserman.

Title
Semiotic Perception and the Problem of Chaucer's 'Prejudice'

Published
Parentheses: Papers in Medieval Studies 1 (1999): 145-86. [Web publication.]

Description
Considers strategies that have been used to accuse and excuse Chaucer (and others) of prejudice against women, homosexuals, and Jews, suggesting that medieval language theory and Chaucer's awareness of the semiotic gap between sign and signified (evident in NPT and elsewhere) encourages us to read the Wife of Bath, Pardoner, and Prioress as embodiments of semiotic awareness rather than prejudice.

Contributor
Wasserman, Julian N.

Chaucer Subjects
Nun's Priest and His Tale
Wife of Bath and Her Tale
Pardoner and His Tale
Prioress and Her Tale