A close examination of the prayers in Chaucer's poetry sheds
significant new light on his poetic practice. In a culture as
steeped in communal, scripted acts of prayer as Chaucer's England,
a written prayer asks not only to be read, but to be inhabited: its
"I" marks a space that readers are invited to occupy. This book
examines the implications of accepting that invitation when reading
Chaucer's poetry. Both in his often-overlooked pious writings and
in his ambitious, innovative pagan narratives, the "I" of prayer
provides readers with a subject-position thatcan be at once
devotional and literary - a stance before a deity and a stance in
relation to a poem. Chaucer uses this uniquely open, participatory
"I" to implicate readers in his poetry and to guide their work of
reading. In examining Christian and pagan prayers alongside each
other, Chaucer's Prayers cuts across an assumed division between
the "religious" and "secular" writings within Chaucer's corpus.
Rather, it emphasizes continuities andapproaches prayer as part of
Chaucer's broader experimentation with literary voice. It also
places Chaucer in his devotional context and foregrounds how pious
practices intersect with and shape his poetic practices. These
insightschallenge a received view of Chaucer as an essentially
secular poet and shed new light on his poetry's relationship to
religion.
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