Game, Play, and High Seriousness in Chaucer's Poetry.
- Author / Editor
- Lanham, Richard A.
Game, Play, and High Seriousness in Chaucer's Poetry.
- Published
- English Studies 48 (1967): 1-24.
- Description
- Challenges Matthew Arnold's assertion that Chaucer's poetry lacks "high seriousness," considering the issue in light of game theory and Chaucer's attitude toward characterization. Because Chaucer's viewed character as performative role-playing (especially in CT and TC), he casts human life as a "series of overlapping games," blurring the "boundary" between literature and life, and complicating the static view of humanity that underlies Arnold's notions of tragedy and epic.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Background and General Criticism
Canterbury Tales--General
Troilus and Criseyde