Is the Audience Dead? Textually Constructed Audiences and Differentiated Learning in Medieval England.

Author / Editor
Murchison, Krista A.

Title
Is the Audience Dead? Textually Constructed Audiences and Differentiated Learning in Medieval England.

Published
Modern Language Review 115, no. 3 (2020): 497-517.

Description
Argues that audience-based lines of interpretation are no more reliable than author-based loci of interpretation, and reviews the "ars predicandi", religious guides, and the "ars poetica" (literary works), analyzing "how writer and actual audiences approached textually constructed audiences in medieval England.” Considers CT with special attention to KnT and CYT, concluding that "[f]or Chaucer's fictional audience of pilgrims, at least, divergent textually constructed audiences pose little threat to narrative coherence."

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General
Knight and His Tale
Canon's Yeoman and His Tale