Reading Literature Historically: Drama and Poetry from Chaucer to the Reformation

Author / Editor
Walker, Greg.

Title
Reading Literature Historically: Drama and Poetry from Chaucer to the Reformation

Published
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

Physical Description
206 pp.

Description
Explores the "potential value and pitfalls of reading the literature and drama of this period 'historically.'" Chapter 6 addresses Chaucer and argues that Absolon "defies categorization," but seems to have origins in popular religion and medieval drama. Argues that, from a Freudian perspective, Absolon is obsessed with oral pleasure and compares MilT to KnT, comparing Absolon to Palamon and Arcite. Also compares Absolon to Gawain in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and Th. Ultimately, reads MilT as critiquing medieval drama and its Mariolatry.

Chaucer Subjects
Miller and His Tale
Knight and His Tale
Tale of Sir Thopas
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations