Narrative, Authority and Power - The Medieval Exemplum and the Chaucerian Tradition (Paperback)

Little attention has been paid to the political and ideological significance of the exemplum, a brief narrative form used to illustrate a moral. Through a study of four major works in the Chaucerian tradition (The Canterbury Tales, John Gower's Confessio Amantis, Thomas Hoccleve's Regement of Princes, and Lydgate's Fall of Princes), Scanlon redefines the exemplum as a 'narrative enactment of cultural authority'. He traces its development through the two strands of the medieval Latin tradition which the Chaucerians appropriate: the sermon exemplum, and the public exemplum of the Mirrors of Princes. In so doing, he reveals how Chaucer and his successors used these two forms of exemplum to explore the differences between clerical authority and lay power, and to establish the moral and cultural authority of their emergent vernacular tradition.

General

Imprint:	Cambridge UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
Release date:	November 2007
First published:	November 2007
Authors:	Larry Scanlon
Dimensions:	228 x 152 x 22mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	392
ISBN-13:	978-0-521-04425-7
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > Classical, early & medieval Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Poetry & poets > General
LSN:	0-521-04425-1
Barcode:	9780521044257

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