DOCSLIB.ORG

Microfilms Internationa) 300 N.Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 40106

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Microfilms Internationa) 300 N.Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 40106 INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this document, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help clarify markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1.Thc sign or “target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “ Missing Pagc(s)” . If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they arc spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark, it is an indication of either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, duplicate copy, or copyrighted materials that should not have been filmed. For blurred pages, a good image o f the page can be found in the adjacent frame. If copyrighted materials were deleted, a target note will appear listing the pages in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., is part of the material being photographed, a definite method of “sectioning” the material has been followed. It is customary to begin filming at the upper left hand comer o f a large sheet and to continue from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. I f necessary, sectioning is continued again-beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. For illustrations that cannot be satisfactorily reproduced by xerographic means, photographic prints can be purchased at additional cost and inserted into your xerographic copy. These prints are available upon request from the Dissertations Customer Services Department. 5. Some pages in any document may have indistinct print. In all cases the best available copy has been filmed. University Microfilms Internationa) 300 N.Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 40106 8318350 Fashbaugh, Elmer Jack CHAUCER’S TROUBLED ENDINGS The Ohio Slate University Ph.D. 1983 University Microfilms International 300 N. Zecb Road. Ann Arbor, M l 48106 Copyright 1983 by Fashbaugh, Elmer Jack All Rights Reserved PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V . 1. Glossy photographs or pages______ 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print_____ 3. Photographs with dark background______ 4. Illustrations are poor copy______ 5. Pages with black merits, not original copy_____ 6. Print shows through as there is text on both sides of page______ 7. Indistinct, broken or small print on several pages 8. Print exceeds margin requirements_____ 9. Tightly bound copy with print lost in spine______ 10. Computer printout pages with indistinct print_____ 11. Page(s)____________lacking when material received, and not available from school or author. 12. Page(s)____________seem to be missing in numbering only as text follows. 13. Two pages numbered____________ . Text follows. 14. Curling and wrinkled pages______ 15. Other_____________________________________________________________________ University Microfilms international CHAUCER’S TROUBLED ENDINGS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By E. Jack Fashbaugh, B.S., H.A. • •It* The Ohio State University 1983 Reading Committees Approved By Alan K. Brown Lisa J. Kiser Christian K. Zacher Adviser Department of English To Helen Paul Fashbaugh for constant support i i VITA November 13, 19**6 .... Born - Bessemer, Michigan 1970. .......... B.S., St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota 1970-1972 ........ Teaching Assistant, Department of English, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota 1972. ....■••••. M.A., St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota 1977-1980 ••••••■• Teaching Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1980-1981.. ....... Administrative Assistant, The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1981-1983 ........ Teaching Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Medieval English Literature Studies in Middle English Literature. Professor Christian K. Zacher Studies in Old English Literature. Professor Alan K. Brown i i i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page VITA............................................... iii INTRODUCTION....................................... 1 Chapter I. THE TROILPS AND THE KNIGHT’S TALE I: CONSEQUENTIAL AND ANALYTICAL STRUCTURES ................... 6 II. THE TROILPS AND THE KNIGHT*3 TALE II: CONSTITUTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE STRUCTURES................. k? III. THE TROILPS AND THE KNIGHT’S TALE III: CLOSURAL TRANSFORMATION.............................. 69 IV. DREAM-VISIONS I: ON AVOIDING THE COLLAPSE OF ANALYTICAL CONSTITUTIVE STRUCTURES........... 87 V. DREAM-VISIONS II: ANTICIPATING THE CANTERBURY TALES ..................................... 117 VI. CANTERBURY TALES I: THE APPEARANCE OF THE CANON AND HIS YEOMAN.............................. 126 VII. CANTERBURY TALES II: PROPER TALES............. 139 VIII. CANTERBURY TALES III: PIOUS TALES AND DIRTY J O K E S ................................ 179 IX. CANTERBURY TALES IV: CONFESSIONS............. 199 LIST OF UORKS CONSULTED............................ 209 iv INTRODUCTION Key concepts upon which this dissertation is based were developed under the influence of critics writing with a general, historicist perspective, not (as might be suspected) under the influence of main-stream structuralism--though I have had to sample such criticism in the interest of refining my terminology. Of course, my interest in criticism which employs binary analysis may be seen as an anticipation of structuralist tendencies. An example of the sort of binary analysis which has prompted me to develop a theory of narrative along structuralist lines may be found in Pamela Qradon's Form and Style in Early English Literature. Though this work is admirable for the range of material it covers, the difficulty the author has in UBing her mythic/mimetic dichotomy to understand the dynamic of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in its passages of crisis illustrates, I think, general imprecision: Suppose . we take . the hunting and temptation scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, should we class them as mythic narrative or as mimetic narrative? I would suggest that they fall into the category of mimetic narrative, since, although their function may be partly as vectors of a theme, they also constitute a development of the description of the life at the Green Knight's castle.'* Gradon's question about the passages of Sir Gawain under her review *) Form and Style in Early English Literature (London: Methuen, 1971 )i P. 25T- 1 is somewhat difficult because it is framed by no recognition of the point that repetition, a salient feature of the narrative, is heightened through doubling, a stylistic feature which suggests that the writer wants to direct our attention to something unmimetic. A sense of mythic, not mimetic, import may seem to be implied, in fact. We need a model complex enough to account for the fact that in literature stylistic and organizational phenomena may or may not derive from the kinds of meaning we usually associate with them. James I. Wimsatt's allegory/mirror distinction, while it does not in the same way give us the difficulty of moving from method of signification to meaning that we find in using Gradon's division, does in fact give us the same basic problem: Allegories (in the restricted sense I am using) are plots which meaningfully analyze generalized experiences, and mirrors are ordered collections of descriptive materials, characters, or actions which present compre­ hensive images of experience or knowledge.2 A critic wonders about the relationship between plot and the generalization of experience, about the relationship between descriptions and the presentation of "comprehensive images." How do images become comprehensive? The idea of an analytical structure playing upon a consequen­ tial constitutive structure (Wimsatt's "allegory"?) and the idea of an opposite literary dynamic (Wimsatt's "mirror"?) occur to us. 2 Allegory and Mirror: Tradition and Structure in Middle English Literature (New York: Pegasus, 1970), p. 31. And certain connections encourage the full emergence of a theory. Russell A. Peck's picture of personal language trying to "pierce the public myth" in Middle English literature^ connects with J. A. Burrow's observation that in Chaucer's age exemplum and it single episode replace allegory and rambling romance. In Chaucer's age, interest in representing causality, interest in consequential structures (as I want to call them), appears to be ascendant, while interest in representing given modules of mental or physical being, after centuries of dominance, appears to be in decline. Perhaps what is as interesting as any claim we might make about tendencies and the possibility of thematic implications is the observation that both of the structures I have suggested— consequential and analytical structures— will occur and "find" some sort of relationship in any given literary text. Concepts developed by two critics of general interest who have devoted considerable attention to endings— Barbara Herrnstein
Load more

Recommended publications
  • VIRTUE of NECESSITY Inconclusiveness and Narrative Form in Chaucer S Poetry
    Bfilili i ms— I ••i • ii VIRTUE OF NECESSITY Inconclusiveness and Narrative Form in Chaucer s Poetry Larry Sklute VIRTUE OF NECESSITY Thanne is it wysdom, as it thynketh me, To maken vertu of necessitee, And take it weel that we may nat eschue, And namely that to us alle is due. The contrarie of al this is wilfulnesse. Chaucer's Knight's Theseus VIRTUE OF NECESSITY Inconclusiveness and Narrative Form in Chaucer's Poetry Larry Sklute Ohio State University Press : Columbus TO CAROL An earlier version of a portion of chapter 3, under the title "The Inconclusive Form of the Parliament of Fowls," appeared in the Chaucer Review, vol. 16, no. 2 (1981-82), pp. 119-28. Reprinted by permission of the Pennsylvania State University Press. An earlier version of portions of chapter 5, under the title "Catalogue Form and Catalogue Style in the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales, appeared in Studia Neophilologica 58 (1980): 35-46. Reprinted by permission. Copyright ® 1984 by the Ohio State University Press All Rights Reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Sklute, Larry. Virtue of necessity. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400—Technique. 2. Narration (Rhetoric). I. Title. PR1940.S56 1985 821'. 1 84-22825 ISBN 0-8142-0376-0 CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii I. "What May I Conclude?": Introduction 3 II . "I Have Gret Wonder": Inconclusiveness in the Book of the Duchess 23 III . "Betwixen Adamauntes Two": Conceptual In­ conclusiveness in the House of Fame and the Parlia­ ment of Fowls 3 5 IV. "Of Storial Thing": Anelida and Arcite and Troilus and Criseyde 59 V.
    [Show full text]
  • Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame
    Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1996 Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame: From Authority to Experience Victoria Frantseva Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Frantseva, Victoria, "Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame: From Authority to Experience" (1996). Masters Theses. 1905. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/1905 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THESIS REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE TO: Graduate Degree Candidates (who have written formal theses) SUBJECT: Permission to Reproduce Theses The University Library is rece1v1ng a number of requests from other institutions asking permission to reproduce dissertations for inclusion in their library holdings. Although no copyright laws are involved, we feel that professional courtesy demands that permission be obtained from the author before we allow theses to be copied. PLEASE SIGN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS: Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lend my thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copying it for inclusion in that institution's library or research holdings. I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University not allow my thesis to be reproduced because: Author Date GEOFFREY CHAUCER'S HOUSE OF FAME: FROM AUTHORITY TO EXPERIENCE BY Victoria Frantseva THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 1996 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE DATE DATE Abstract Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame is one of the most provocative dream-vision poems written in the fourteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Rhetorical Ductus in Chaucerian Ekphrasis
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-11-2016 12:00 AM Rhetorical Ductus in Chaucerian Ekphrasis Emily Laura Pez The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Richard Moll The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in English A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Emily Laura Pez 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Pez, Emily Laura, "Rhetorical Ductus in Chaucerian Ekphrasis" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3656. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3656 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract My thesis investigates how the rhetorical device of ekphrasis functions in the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer. Ekphrasis, as a detailed description of a work of visual art, figures prominently in Chaucer’s The Book of the Duchess, The Parliament of Fowls, The House of Fame, and The Knight’s Tale. Drawing upon the theories of the medieval arts of memory and particularly the work of Mary Carruthers on this subject, my thesis argues that Chaucer’s ekphrases incorporate memory techniques, which connect the ekphrases integrally to the texts in which they are found. Chaucer’s early uses of ekphrasis in The Book of the Duchess and The Parliament of Fowls guide the audience’s interpretation and therefore contribute to the ductus, defined by Carruthers as the text’s “overall direction” (“Concept” 196).
    [Show full text]
  • The Idea of the Book in the Middle Ages: LANGUAGE THEORY, MYTHOLOGY, and FICTION
    The Idea of the Book in the Middle Ages The Idea of the Book in the Middle Ages LANGUAGE THEORY, MYTHOLOGY, AND FICTION JESSE M. GELLRICH Cornell University Press ITH ACA AND LONDON Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. Cornell University Press gratefully acknowledges a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that aided in bringing this book to publication Copyright © 1985 by Cornell University First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 1987 Second paperback printing 2019 The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-8014-1722-1 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-5017-4070-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-5017-4071-8 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-5017-4072-5 (epub/mobi) Librarians: A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Excerpts from Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, translated, with a commentary by Charles Singleton, Bollingen Series 80, Volume 1: Inferno, copyright © 1973 by Princeton University Press; Volume 3: Paradiso, copyright © 1975 by Princeton University Press, are reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press. For my family and in memory of my father 19°1-197° Letters are indeed the indices of things, the signs of words, in which there is such power that they speak to us without voice the discourse of the absent.
    [Show full text]
  • Chaucer and the Theme of Mutability. Joseph John Mogan Jr Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1961 Chaucer and the Theme of Mutability. Joseph John Mogan Jr Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Mogan, Joseph John Jr, "Chaucer and the Theme of Mutability." (1961). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 697. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/697 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been 62—54 microfilmed exactly as received MOGAN, Jr.f Joseph John, 1924- CHAUCER AND THE THEME OF MUTABILITY. Louisiana State University, Ph.D., 1961 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan CHAUCER AND THE THEME OF MUTABILITY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Joseph John Mogan, Jr. B.A., St. Mary's University, 1946 M.A., Notre Dame University, 1954 August, 1961 ACKNOWLEDGMENT It is with gratitude that I express my indebtedness to Dr. Thomas A. Kirby for supervising this study through to its completion; and for his many helps and suggestions throughout most of my graduate training which "shul not here be told for me." TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENT ......................................
    [Show full text]