Temporal Circumstances: Form and History in the Canterbury Tales (The New Middle Ages)

Temporal Circumstances provides powerful and detailed interpretations of the most important and challenging of the Canterbury Tales. Well-informed and clearly written, this book will interest both those familiar with Chaucer's masterpiece and readers new to it. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction: Historicism and Postmodernity....Pages 1-18 Putting the Wife in Her Place: The Place of Philology....Pages 19-35 Putting the Wife in Her Place: The Place of History....Pages 37-49 Freedom and Necessity: The Example of the Clerk’s Tale....Pages 51-65 Chaucer’s Pardoner on the Couch: Psyche and Clio in Medieval Literary Studies....Pages 67-96 “What Man Artow?”: Authorial Self-Definition in the Tale of Sir Thopas and the Tale of Melibee....Pages 97-128 “The Living Witnesses of Our Redemption”: Martyrdom and Imitation in the Prioress’s Tale....Pages 129-157 Perpetual Motion: Alchemy and the Technology of the Self....Pages 159-176 Back Matter....Pages 177-279 Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 8 Priface 9 Introduction: Historicism and Postmodemity 10 1. Putting the Wife in Her Place: The Place of Philology 28 2. Putting the Wife in Her Place: The Place of History 45 3. Freedom and Necessity: The Example of the Clerk's Tale 58 4. Chaucer's Pardoner on the Couch: Psyche and Clio in Medieval Literary Studies 73 5. "What Man Artow?": Authorial Self-Definition in the Tale of Sir Thopas and the Tale of Me Ii bee 103 6. "The Living Witnesses of Our Redemption": Martyrdom and Imitation in the Prioress's Tale 135 7. Perpetual Motion: Alchemy and the Technology of the Self 164 Notes 182 Index 271