Chaucer and Language
Essays in Honour of Douglas Wurtele
- Publisher
- McGill-Queen's University Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2001
- Category
- Poetry, Ancient, Classical & Medieval
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780773521827
- Publish Date
- Nov 2001
- List Price
- $110.00
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
Every poet arrives at some sense of how Language works. Chaucer's engagement, like that of the greatest literary figures, goes beyond the brilliant, skilful use of Language as a tool of expression, beyond what we usually call "talent." He brings to the creative use of signification a sophisticated philosophical questioning of the very nature of Language, of how we know and how we signify. Chaucer and Language argues that Chaucer's work points to answers to these questions, emphasizing that in various ways Chaucer made Language itself the Subject of his writing. The polyvalent nature of signs and the ambiguity this makes possible are discussed as one aspect of Chaucer's use of Language as Subject, as is irony. Chaucer's extension of the concept of Language to include relics and the Eucharist, his exploitation of equivocation and the lie, and the semiotic dimensions of his poetic themes are also treated. These issues derive directly from the long tradition of mediaeval sign theory and anticipate the major issues of the modern theory of signs that is semantics.
About the authors
David Williams is professor of English, St. Paul's College, University of Manitoba, and the author of several novels and critical books, including Imagined Nations: Reflections on Media in Canadian Fiction.
Editorial Reviews
"Chaucer and Language has a fine group of Contributors addressing a major critical topic. This is a solid contribution to Chaucer studies." Robert R. Edwards, Department of English, Penn State University "Chaucer and Language is solid. New interpretations are offered throughout, bringing together a wide range of Subjects and interests. The authors offer insightful, perspicacious observations and arguments, bolstered by careful, attentive, close reading that is contextualized substantively. " Catherine S. Cox, Department of English, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
Other titles by
The Communion of the Book
Milton and the Humanist Revolution in Reading
Canadarm and Collaboration
How Canada’s Astronauts and Space Robots Explore New Worlds
Milton's Leveller God
And We Go On
A Memoir of the Great War
Media, Memory, and the First World War
Saints Alive
Word, Image, and Enactment in the Lives of the Saints
Imagined Nations
Reflections on Media in Canadian Fiction
Deformed Discourse
The Function of the Monster in Medieval Thought and Literature
Literature and Ethics
Essays Presented to A.E. Malloch
Faulkner's Women
The Myth and the Muse