Chaucer's Ethical Poetic in the 'Canterbury Tales'

Author / Editor
Murton, Megan.

Title
Chaucer's Ethical Poetic in the 'Canterbury Tales'

Published
Clíodhna Carney and Frances McCormack, eds. Chaucer's Poetry: Words, Authority and Ethics (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013), pp. 48-60.

Description
Argues for an "ethical" reading of Chaucer's view of poetry in CT distinct from didacticism, examining Chaucer's engagement with sententiae of Plato and St. Paul and suggesting that, for Chaucer, poetry's value is in the process of interpretation it asks of the reader. Learning and "doctrine" arise from this activity, and so the aesthetic and instructive values of poetry are inseparable.

Alternative Title
Chaucer's Poetry: Words, Authority and Ethics.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations