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First entire collection centred on Chaucer's Book of the Duchess,
making a compelling case for its importance and value. The Book of
the Duchess, Chaucer's first major poem, is foundational for our
understanding of Chaucer's literary achievements in relation to
late-medieval English textual production; yet in comparison with
other works, itstreatment has been somewhat peripheral in previous
criticism. This volume, the first full-length collection devoted to
the Book, argues powerfully against the prevalent view that it is
an underdeveloped or uneven early work, and instead positions it as
a nuanced literary and intellectual effort in its own right, one
that deserves fuller integration with twenty-first-century Chaucer
studies. The essays within it pursue lingering questions as well as
new frontiers in research, including the poem's literary
relationships in the sphere of French and English writing, material
processes of transmission and compilation, and patterns of
reception. Each chapter advances an original reading of the Book of
the Duchess that uncovers new aspects of its internal dynamics or
of its literary or intellectual contexts. As a whole, the volume
reveals the poem's mobility and elasticity within an increasingly
international sphere of cultural discourse that thrives on dynamic
exchange and encourages sophisticated reflection on authorial
practice. Jamie C. Fumo is Professor of English at Florida State
University. Contributors: B.S.W. Barootes, Julia Boffey, Ardis
Butterfield, Rebecca Davis, A.S.G. Edwards, Jeff Espie, Philip
Knox, Helen Phillips, Elizaveta Strakhov, Sara Sturm-Maddox, Marion
Wells.
New investigations into Charles d'Orleans' under-rated poem, its
properties and its qualities. The compilation Fortunes Stabilnes,
the English poetry Charles d'Orleans wrote in the course of his
twenty-five year captivity in England after Agincourt, requires a
larger lens than that of Chaucerianism, through which it has most
often been viewed. A fresh view from another perspective, one that
attends to form and style, as well as to the poet's French
traditions, reveals a more conceptually complex and innovative kind
of poetry than we have seen until now. The essays collected here
reassess him in the light of recent work in Middle English studies.
They detail those qualities that make his text one of the most
accomplished and moving of the late Middle Ages: Charles's use of
English, his metrical play, his felicity with formes fixes lyrics,
his innovative use of the dits structure and lyric sequences, and
finally, above all, his ability to write beautiful poetry. Overall,
they bring out the underappreciated contribution made by Charles to
the canon of English poetry.
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