Chaucer as a Satirist in the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

Description: Cautions that familiarity can blunt readers' awareness of the subtleties of satire in GP, recommending renewed attention to the characterization of the pilgrim narrator and differences between this character and "Chaucer the poet" as aspects of satiric technique. Comments on shifts in rhythm as signals to satire, and on subtle nuances in the use of "common complaints" against assumed character types, comparing some of Chaucer's techniques with Langland's, and gauging the extent to which Chaucer was "influenced by classical satirists."

Chaucer Subjects: General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
Style and Versification
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations