Blind Beasts: Chaucer's Animal World

Description: Studies various aspects of Chaucer's animal imagery (particularly mammals), describing their traditional associations, and exploring Chaucer's uses of these conventions, drawing on natural history, exegesis, and popular lore as well as the animals' actions in nature. Used largely for human characterization, Chaucer's animal images tend to be traditional but he recurrently develops them in complex ways that incorporate "considerations of the animal's symbolism, folklore, and physical appearance." Includes chapters on Chaucer's general practice as well as his specific uses of the boar, hare, wolf, horse, sheep, and dog, considering his entire corpus.