Medieval Critics

Turner 1

Chaucer’s brilliance lies in understanding of need to hear different perspectives

Debate over… in Prioress’s Tale

Chaucer’s intentions (antisemitism)

Ridley (Prioress)

Believes Chaucer is satirising her simplicity/femininity but not religious prejudice

Some critics think antisemitism in Prioress’s Tale is…

an unfortunate fact of the time

Turner 2

Entirety of CT in a ‘transit lounge’ between London + Canterbury

Turner on WOB

She is the first ordinary woman in English Literature

Critics have looked at the connection between… in the Prioress’s Tale

the material and the immaterial

Halverson (Pardoner)

All we get is an image he projects of himself - we know very little about actual Pardoner

Alexander (Prioress)

‘The best antisemitic tract ever written’

Blurton + Johnson (Prioress)

Contemporary readers more interested in prayer than sensationalism of the Jewish villains

Kittredge

Compares tales with Shakespearean soliliquies

Howard (Pardoner) 1

‘Physical deformity’ represents ‘moral depravity’

Howard (Pardoner) 2

We can see the man behind the performance - like an actor (see the delight he takes in it)

MK: Rice (context)

Merchant success allowed people to pursue spiritual endeavours

Term used by many scholars for MK

auto-hagiography

Lee (MK)

Most important part of a biography is a vivid sense of the person

Who is MK often compared with?

WOB

MK - scholars in 80s/90s

Tried to retrospectively diagnose, e.g. post-partum depression

Dangers of applying modern medical context to MK

Lacks medieval context - creativity of writers transforming her suffering