Chaucer's Poetics and the Modern Reader

In Chaucer's Poetics and the Modern Reader, the focus shifts from a realist interpretation of Chaucer's works to a nuanced exploration of his rhetorical poetics, emphasizing the poet's ambivalence about the nature of truth and language. The study aligns Chaucer’s fragmented and contingent narratives with modern poststructuralist and rhetorical theories, arguing that his works embody a profound self-awareness about the limitations and possibilities of literary language. Rejecting static notions of "truth to life," this approach highlights Chaucer’s place in a lineage of literary innovators who probe the intersection of language, reality, and artifice.

Through analyses of works like the House of Fame and The Canterbury Tales, the study reveals Chaucer’s consistent use of rhetorical poetics across diverse narrative forms. The House of Fame, with its flamboyant structure and reflexive style, serves as a touchstone for understanding Chaucer’s aesthetic principles, while the Canterbury Tales showcases his adaptability, blending realism in the Pardoner’s Tale with rhetorical brilliance in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Ultimately, Chaucer’s poetic ambivalence culminates in the final sequence of the Tales, where he juxtaposes the ambiguities of literary art with theological certitude. This work presents Chaucer as a pioneering figure whose insights into the instability of language and meaning resonate deeply with modern literary discourse.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.