Loose Talk from Langland to Chaucer

Author / Editor
Middleton, Anne.

Title
Loose Talk from Langland to Chaucer

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 35 (2013): 29-46.

Description
Documents William Langland's use, in "Piers Plowman," of sudden, irruptive, colloquial, and polysemous language, distinguishing it from so-called "real" speech and assessing its thematic, narratological, and ethical values. Gower found this device of "loose talk" to be disturbing, while Chaucer embraced it as a fundamental source of inspiration, underpinning a number of his innovations.

Alternative Title
Biennial Chaucer Lecture, the New Chaucer Society, Eighteenth International Congress, July 23-26, 2012, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies.
Style and Versification
Sources, Analogues and Literary Relations