In this thesis I discuss aspects of Chaucer's interest in
the relation of Language to the reality which it attempts
to express and the relation of poetic fiction to Christian
truth, and the type of readerly response invited by this
interest. The method employed includes analysis of the
structural development of the narrative frame and, to a
lesser degree, of the entirety of the poem, as well as
discussion of the historical context of the issues under
consideration. These issues are raised in the narrative
frame of the Canterbury Tales and are explored there and
in the individual tales. Their treatment in the narrative
frame is seminal and has provided the major focus of
discussion in what follows.
The narrative frame structure operates dually. In the
diachrony of a first reading of the poem, the frame
world provides a correlative to the actual world in
which man experiences serial time. The realignments
of interpretation necessary because of its changing
claims regarding its own nature — and hence its changing
demands upon its readers — are constant reminders of the
relativity of human judgment and experience in space
and time. "rn the synchrony inevitable in a second or
subsequent Lng, which comprehends the entirety of
the poem at each point in its linear progression, the
reader's position outside the poem's time span of past,
present and future, is analogous to the poet’s in his
original conception of the poem and to God's in relation
to the actual world, which the poem's world imitates.
After a first reading the reader sees that initially
Chaucer's truth claim has enabled him to trust the
authenticity of the account and to regard it not as
poetic invention but as a report of historical truth.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/16499 |
| Date | 13 January 2015 |
| Creators | Chaskalson, Lorraine |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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