Practicing Literary Theory in the Middle Ages: Ethics and the Mixed Form in Chaucer, Gower, Usk, and Hoccleve
Practicing Literary Theory in the Middle Ages: Ethics and the Mixed Form in Chaucer, Gower, Usk, and Hoccleve
Cite
Abstract
Literary scholars often avoid the category of the aesthetic in discussions of ethics, believing that purely aesthetic judgments can vitiate analyses of a literary work's sociopolitical heft and meaning. This book reveals that aesthetics—the formal aspects of literary language that make it sense-perceptible—are indeed inextricable from ethics in the writing of medieval literature. It brings a keen formalist eye to bear on the prosimetric form: the mixing of prose with lyrical poetry. This form descends from the writings of the sixth-century Christian philosopher Boethius—specifically his famous prison text, Consolation of Philosophy—to the late medieval English tradition. The book argues that Boethius's text had a broad influence not simply on the thematic and philosophical content of subsequent literary writing, but also on the specific aesthetic construction of several vernacular traditions. It demonstrates the underlying prosimetric structures in a variety of Middle English texts—including Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and portions of the Canterbury Tales, Thomas Usk's Testament of Love, John Gower's Confessio amantis, and Thomas Hoccleve's autobiographical poetry—and asks how particular formal choices work, how they resonate with medieval literary-theoretical ideas, and how particular poems and prose works mediate the tricky business of modeling ethical transformation for a readership.
-
Front Matter
-
Introduction Formalism and Ethics: The Practice of Literary Theory
-
One
Formal Experiments with Ethical Writing: Prosimetrum and Protrepsis
-
Two
Sensible Prose and a Sense of Meter: Chaucer’s Aesthetic Sentence in the Boece and Troilus and Criseyde
-
Three
The Consolation of Tragedy: Protrepsis in the Troilus
-
Four
Prosimetrum and the CanterburyPhilosophy of Literature
-
Five
Political Protrepsis: Usk and Gower
-
Six
Hoccleve and the Convention of Mixed-Form Protrepsis
- Conclusion A Mixed-Form Tradition of Literary Theory and Practice
-
End Matter
Sign in
Get help with accessPersonal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
Institutional access
- Sign in through your institution
- Sign in with a library card Sign in with username/password Recommend to your librarian
Institutional account management
Sign in as administratorPurchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 4 |
October 2022 | 2 |
November 2022 | 4 |
November 2022 | 1 |
December 2022 | 1 |
January 2023 | 3 |
January 2023 | 5 |
January 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 5 |
February 2023 | 3 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 4 |
February 2023 | 8 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 6 |
February 2023 | 2 |
March 2023 | 6 |
March 2023 | 3 |
March 2023 | 1 |
March 2023 | 3 |
March 2023 | 1 |
March 2023 | 2 |
March 2023 | 3 |
April 2023 | 2 |
April 2023 | 2 |
April 2023 | 2 |
April 2023 | 5 |
May 2023 | 2 |
May 2023 | 1 |
May 2023 | 4 |
May 2023 | 1 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 2 |
July 2023 | 5 |
July 2023 | 3 |
July 2023 | 4 |
July 2023 | 7 |
August 2023 | 4 |
August 2023 | 4 |
August 2023 | 5 |
August 2023 | 2 |
September 2023 | 4 |
September 2023 | 1 |
September 2023 | 1 |
September 2023 | 1 |
September 2023 | 3 |
September 2023 | 3 |
November 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 5 |
November 2023 | 8 |
November 2023 | 2 |
November 2023 | 5 |
December 2023 | 1 |
January 2024 | 4 |
January 2024 | 5 |
February 2024 | 1 |
February 2024 | 2 |
February 2024 | 4 |
February 2024 | 8 |
February 2024 | 1 |
February 2024 | 4 |
February 2024 | 2 |
March 2024 | 1 |
March 2024 | 1 |
March 2024 | 2 |
March 2024 | 2 |
April 2024 | 6 |
April 2024 | 1 |
April 2024 | 4 |
April 2024 | 8 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.