An Analysis of the Framework Structure of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'

Description: Investigates how the frame of the Canterbury pilgrimage is reflected in individual tales, gauging their degrees of authenticity, the quarrels among the pilgrims, the relations between social rank and taste, the interdependence of solace and sentence, and the characterizations of individual tellers. Then comments on the multi-layered roles and functions of the narrator as participant, author, and historical poet. Also argues that the above concerns render it unlikely that Chaucer was indebted to Boccaccio's "Decameron."

Chaucer Subjects: Canterbury Tales--General; Sources, Analogues, and LIterary Relations