The authorial manipulation of language in Chaucer's "Troilus".
Item
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Title
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The authorial manipulation of language in Chaucer's "Troilus".
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Identifier
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AAI9130388
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identifier
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9130388
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Creator
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Woehling, Mary-Patrice.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Robert O. Payne
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Medieval | Literature, English
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Abstract
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The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the instances of authorial manipulation in Chaucer's Troilus and to fill a need for a close reading of the work in relation to the self-reflexivity of its poetics, to follow the text and examine its self-conscious language. One of the subjects of the Troilus is the manipulation of language. Chaucer uses various rhetorical devices through the voices of his narrator, his major characters, and the old books that the narrator claims as his sources in order to control the language and the narrative.;The strategy is a form of reader response criticism grounded in modern poetics and medieval rhetoric to give an extremely close reading of the text. Attention is paid to Chaucer's references to language, writing, sources, and his tendency to echo phrases throughout the text and to create plays on words. The Troilus is not merely a comment on love won and lost; it is an examination of language, of the "forme of speche" which is subject to change through time. The problem that the Troilus presents is that love and language are changeable. The poet is ensnared by his language, his sources, and, to a degree, his audience. His language is changeable, his sources are possibly inaccurate, and his readers are potential misreaders. The Troilus is reflexive, and constantly reminds the reader of the text as well as of the story.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
