Auctor and Auctoritee in Chaucer's "The Book of the Duchess."

Description: Highlights the "creative disruptions of Chaucerian parody" and argues that BD satirizes the language of courtly complaint to privilege more naturalistic expression of mourning. Through his conversation with the dreamer, the knight's language moves from highly conventional, impersonal phrasing common to the langue d'amours to a "bathetic simplicity" that indicates the speaker's "authenticity and naturalness." Claims that BD demonstrates how individual experience is best articulated through fresh rather than formal language.