Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Series Number 63) - Hardcover

Fyler, John M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521872154 ISBN 13: 9780521872157

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Medieval commentaries on the origin and history of language used biblical history, from Creation to the Tower of Babel, as their starting-point, and described the progressive impairment of an originally perfect language. Biblical and classical sources raised questions for both medieval poets and commentators about the nature of language, its participation in the Fall, and its possible redemption. John M. Fyler focuses on how three major poets - Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun - participated in these debates about language. He offers new analysis of how the history of language is described and debated in the Divine Comedy, the Canterbury Tales and the Roman de la Rose. While Dante follows the Augustinian idea of the Fall and subsequent redemption of language, Jean de Meun and Chaucer are skeptical about the possibilities for linguistic redemption and resign themselves, at least half-comically, to the linguistic implications of the Fall and the declining world.

About this title

Book Description:

This book focuses on three major poets - Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun - within the context of medieval commentaries on the origin and history of language.

About the Author:

John M. Fyler is Professor of English at Tufts University, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0521872154
• ISBN 13: 9780521872157
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 322