"What me is": Insomnia Cures, Saintly Miracles, and Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess" as Illness Narrative.
- Author / Editor
- Fumo, Jamie C.
"What me is": Insomnia Cures, Saintly Miracles, and Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess" as Illness Narrative.
- Published
- Viator 52.2 (2021): 179-226.
- Description
- Interprets BD as an early example of "illness narrative." BD's structuring concern with sickness and healing, centered upon insomnia detached from the courtly discourse of lovesickness, reflects the preoccupations of late medieval natural philosophy and medicine. Adduces analogues for BD’s portrayal of healing and personal narrative, including the healing of insomnia, in hagiographic miracle collections. The "salutary potential of narrative” revealed in BD resonates with modern sociological perspectives on illness.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Book of the Duchess