Chaucer Exam Notes Canterbury Tales & Dream Poetry Notes

CHAUCER QUESTIONS DREAM POETRY 1. Examine the influence of Chaucer on one or more authors of the fifteenth century. CHAUCER'S INFLUENCE 2. 'The tension between the transcendental and the mundane, central to medieval dream theory, creeps into even the most fully divine or earthly dream visions'. MUNDANE+TRANSCENDENTAL IN DREAM 3. Examine the relationship between 'dreaming' and 'doing' in any two works of this period. DREAMING + DOING 4. Examine one or more texts that demonstrate sharply divergent attitudes towards women. ATTITUDES TO WOMEN 5. Dream visions always directly interrogate the bases of poetic imagination'. Discuss. DREAM VISION + IMAGINATION 6. Debate is not a stand--alone form but a prominent component of many works of the medieval period. Discuss. USE OF DEBATE 7. 'Later medieval literature is distinctive in the room it allows for voices of dissent'. Discuss. VOICE OF DISSENT 8. Examine the representation of women's speech inside and/or outside of marriage in at least two texts. FEMALE SPEECH + MARRIAGE 9. Discuss the engagement with the 'literary 'past' in some dream visions that you have read. LITERARY PAST + DREAM VISION CANTERBURY TALES 1. What Chaucer wanted from the frame was a rich choice of different kinds of narrative and the indirection of authorial relation, the mask of anonymity, which alone gave him room for manoeuvre.' FRAMEWORK + AUTHORSHIP 2. 'Quite in contrast to Boccaccio's Decameron, the Canterbury Tales includes rather dull stories set into a vibrant narrative'. TALES + NARRATIVE FRAME 3. To what extent is it possible to see the Canterbury Tales narrators as characters distinct from the poet? NARRATIVE + VOICE + CHARACTERS 4. When Chaucer took his leave of the Canterbury Tales he revoked 'the tales of Caunterbury, thilke that sownen into synne'. What importance do you attach to this, and which tales would you suppose the description to cover? RETRACTIONS 5. Chaucer offers us advice on how to read The Canterbury Tales in the prologue to the Miller's Tale (A. 3167--86). ADVICE TO READER / NARRATIVE 6. Discuss conceptions of the audience in the Canterbury Tales. AUDIENCE + VOICE + CONCEALMENT 7. 'The basic literary form in the Canterbury Tales is, shockingly, the fabliau' USE OF FABLIAU 8. 'Chaucer's intense understanding of the potentialities of a literary genre or source often means that he transforms it into something totally new.' Discuss with reference to one or more of The Canterbury Tales. USE OF SOURCES + GENRE 9. 'There are a number of tales in which [...] the mixed style is on display and becomes a part of the subject of the poem' (Charles Muscatine). Discuss with relation to two or more Canterbury Tales STYLE + GENRE THE CANTERBURY TALES; six tales, three romances, and three fabliaux: The Knight's Tale, The Franklin's Tale, and The Wife of Bath's Tale and, The Miller's Tale, The Friar's Tale, and The Nun's Priest's Tale. 1. THE AUTHOR: Intentions and Responsibility C associated sin with motive / intention rather that over pious interpretations which would deem his work immoral -- thus stresses goof intentions and places responsibility of ill interpretation upon his readers. Adopts persona of truth teller -- must tell these stories as they are, cannot make them more virtuous or that would be lying -- adds veracity -- has no control over characters -- real therefore not responsible? 1 Retractions: "Al that is writen is wtiren for oure doctrine" 2 Miller's Tale: "Turne over the leef and chese another tale...Blameth nat me if that ye chese amys" (I.3176-81) 3 Squires Intro: "Nay sir," quod he, "but I wol seye as I kan, With hertly wyl, for I wol nat rebelle Agayn your lust. A tale wol I telle, Have me excused if I speke amys; My wyl is good, and lo, my tale is this." 4 Parson's Tale: "This litel tretsy" if there are faults in they are due to ignorance not malice "to default my unknoyne and nat to my wyl" 5 4. General Prologue : "Or ellis he moot telle his tale untrewe, Or feyne thyng, or fynde wordes newe. ..... Crist spak hymself ful brode in hooly writ, And wel ye woot no vileynye is it. Eek Plato seith, whoso kan hym rede, The wordes moote be cosyn to the dede. Cannot control reader responses so inserts caveats / insurances so that he cannot be held responsiblit / accountable for the meanings hterein. If they are the ones that find evil within the text then than shows more about their morality than his? 2. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: Multiple voices and audiences Multiple perspectives / style / genre / syntax -- variety + Contrast -- "market place of poetics" challenges presumptions of interpretation. Many mocking and untrust worthy voices contrast wiwth the earnest retractions. * Array of situations of address - plethora of temporary / presumably fictional addresses - evoked to provide orientation for particularly prospective that Chaucer wishes to employ during narration. * Use of fictional audiences complements flexible use of his own narrative position (see E.T Donaldson essay) * Multiple narrators find their counterparts in Chaucer's tactical evocation of appropriate addresses to hear them. They fulfill their own role by virtue of their difference from the narrator's speaking voice. * Chaucer finds "audience" by directing his words to those members of his circle most likely to understand his words as he wants them to be understood. (Retractions act in a similar way - directing interpretation - shows Chaucer's general concern for this. * Fictional pilgrim tellers and hearers and contains no references to a real audience = A fictional pilgrim audience - emphasis on their responses - leaves little space for history in the form of contemporary engagement with an actual public. Uses this freedom as a vehicle for 

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