How to Read Both: The Logic of True Contradictions in Chaucer's World.

Description: Maintains that "medieval thought was continually pushed toward true contradictions . . . despite [the] impossibility imposed by classical logic," citing Aristotle, Abelard, Jean Buridan, Aquinas, and modern thinkers such as Hegel and Graham Priest (who labeled true contradictions "dialetheia"). Argues that, as "a lie of profound moral necessity," fiction is the "prime tool" for confronting true contradictions, exploring them in Arthurian works, "Pearl," "Piers Plowman," the ending of TC, and the Pardoner's "fundamental contradiction" of simultaneously accepting and rejecting eternal judgment.

Chaucer Subjects: Background and General Criticism
Troilus and Criseyde
Pardoner and His Tale