Chaucer's Gifts


Book Description

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the most celebrated literary work of medieval England, portrays the culture of the late Middle Ages as a deeply commercial environment, replete with commodities and dominated by market relationships. However, the market is not the only mode of exchange in Chaucer’s world or in his poem. Chaucer’s Gifts reveals the gift economy at work in the tales. Applying important recent advances in anthropological gift theory, it illuminates and explains this network of exchanges and obligations. Chaucer’s Gifts argues that the world of the Canterbury Tales harbours deep commitments to reciprocity and obligation which are at odds with a purely commercial culture, and demonstrates how the market and commercial relations are not natural, eternal, or inevitable – an essential lesson if we are to understand Chaucer’s world or our own.




Chaucer's Gifts


Book Description

Chaucer’s Gifts applies the theoretical approaches of economic anthropology to the Canterbury Tales, to show that in Chaucer’s world the exchange of gifts is as prevalent as the purchase of commodities, and that social relations are as important as money and the market.




Bloom's how to Write about Geoffrey Chaucer


Book Description

Fourteenth-century author, poet, and civil servant Geoffrey Chaucer has delighted readers through the ages with his colorful tales filled with humanity, grace, and strength. He is best known for ""The Canterbury Tales"", a vibrant account of life in England during his own day. That canonical work, along with some of Chaucer's lesser-known works, is thoughtfully presented in this invaluable reference resource. This new volume in the ""Bloom's How to Write about Literature"" series assists students in developing paper topics about this frequently studied Englishman.




Geoffrey Chaucer (Authors in Context)


Book Description

Chaucer lived through a period of extraordinary upheaval: a protracted war with France, devastating plague, the peasants' revolt, religious controversy, and the overthrow of the king. Compact and comprehensive, this book offers a wide-ranging account of the medieval society from which works such as The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde sprang, and shows how these and other works manifest that society in fictional form. Significant aspects of the literary scene, such as patronage, audience, and performance, help to place Chaucer's practices in their historical framework, and his treatment of love, paganism, and reality are framed within their intellectual and philosophical contexts. The modern reception of Chaucer in film and television adaptations is also examined. Seen through the lens of his cultural experience, this is the perfect critical companion to Chaucer's life and poetry. The book includes a chronology of Chaucer's life and time, suggestions for further reading, websites, illustrations, and a comprehensive index. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.




Daily Life in Chaucer's England


Book Description

The medieval world comes alive in this indispensable hands-on resource to life as it was actually lived--with authentic recipes, clothing patterns, songs, dances, and games. The first book on medieval England to arise out of the living history movement, it recreates the daily life of ordinary people, not just the aristocracy, by combining a hands-on approach with the best of current research. The how-to sections are all based on original sources and much of the material is made available here for the first time. The most basic facts of life are systematically covered in a readily accessible format organized for easy reference. Clearly illustrated with over 125 drawings, patterns, and diagrams, plus sheet music, it provides a treasure trove of information for classroom and library use and for those interested in recreating aspects of medieval life. The work is organized into sections on Chaucer's World (social, religious, and economic aspects of life), The Course of Life (birth, childhood, and adolescence, education, marriage, and old age), The Cycles of Time (which concludes with a calendar of the medieval year describing the festivals and events of each month), The Living Environment (including houses, villages, towns, and travel), Clothing and Accessories (including instruction for making complete medieval male and female outfits and braiding authentic medieval lace), Arms and Armor (which describes medieval armor from the point of view of the wearer), Food and Drink (featuring a selection of recipes), and Entertainments (songs with sheet music and instructions for authentic games and dances of the period). A chronology of medieval England, a glossary, appendixes with information and ideas on organizing a medieval event, and suggestions for further reading complete the work. This is an indispensable resource for classroom and school and public libraries because it gives readers a true understanding of what it would actually be like to live in 14th-century England.




American Chaucers


Book Description

This study provides extensive readings of overlooked American reconstructions of Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales from the colonial to postmodern periods, demonstrating how these repackagings convey uniquely American ideas.




Chaucers Other Works in Modern English Prose


Book Description

This is a translation into modern English prose of Chaucer's works, excluding the Canterbury Tales, which have been published separately. Also not included is the Treatise on the Astrolabe and the Equatorie of the Planetis. This book allows the student of Chaucer to read and understand his writings without the obfuscation of obsolete Middle English words. This should form an excellent introduction to Chaucer and his world of the 14th century.




Chaucer


Book Description







Chaucer's Fabliaux as Analogues


Book Description

The presence of so many fabliaux in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is intriguing in its own right, given the fact that there are no real fabliaux in Middle English befor Chaucer. But these stories are also interesting as instances of a concept and practice thas has received little critical attention so far, namely 'analogy', the writing and, above all, recognition of 'similar' stories. How to account for the literary practice that enables us to perceive stories as similar, c.q. analogous? This original study sets out to explore this phenomenon, first tentatively vis-?)vis other terms and practices (Translation, Borrowing, Adaptation, Version) and then, in the major part of the book, in a pragmatic-structuralist analysis of four salient components of narrative--Plot, Character, Thematics, and Genre--each illustrated with examples taken from Chaucer's fabliaux and their analogues in various European languages.In each of the four chapters the key-issue is Categorisation and Hertog traces its evolution and usefulness a a concept from Wittgenstein's family resemblances' and Zadeh's 'fuzzy set theory' to E. Rosch's Prototype theory. The conclusion draws attention to two aspects which set Chaucer's fabliaux very much apart from the other analogues: their contextuality within the polylogue of the Canterbury Tales, and secondly, their explicit intertextuality which invites us to look anew at the assumptions of traditional source-criticism. The study ends with some theoretical reflections on analogy and an attempt at definition.The book will interest not only Chaucerians and other medievalists but also scholars in literarry theory and interpretation.