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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer. Troilus & Criseyde. Geoffrey Chaucer: BIO/HISTORICAL CONTEXTS. Life Dates b. ca. 1340-45 T&C done ca. 1385 CT started ca. 1387 Relevant Regnal Dates 1327-77 (Edward III) 1377-99 (Richard II) 1399-1413 (Henry IV). Chaucer Bio and Implications.

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Geoffrey Chaucer

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  1. Geoffrey Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde

  2. Geoffrey Chaucer: BIO/HISTORICAL CONTEXTS • Life Dates • b. ca. 1340-45 • T&C done ca. 1385 • CT started ca. 1387 • Relevant Regnal Dates • 1327-77 (Edward III) • 1377-99 (Richard II) • 1399-1413 (Henry IV)

  3. Chaucer Bio and Implications • upwardly mobile, bourgeois family • civil servant • royal esquire, diplomat, customs official, etc. • “borderer” -- living between worlds • royal courts, commerce, other countries • foreign service for king -- esp. Italy • exposure to other cultures, writers

  4. Troilus & Criseyde: Formal Overview • Source • Verse Form • Genre • “Objectives” (ambitious ones)

  5. T&C: Formal Overview, cont’d. • Source: Giovanni Boccaccio, Il Filostrato(“The Love-Flattened One”) • Verse Form: Rhyme Royal • 7-line stanza, rhyming ababbcc • iambic pentameter rhythm (5 beats, x / x / x / x / x / )

  6. T&C: Formal Overview, cont’d. • Genre: Romance (definition) • but with many classical epic details/ techniques • invocations of Muses • book divisions • high style (incl. astronomical “machinery”) • classical setting • “send-ups” of Aeneid, maybe Iliad • Ch. playing off classical, canonical literature and culture

  7. T&C: Goals and Major Themes • Ambitious Objectives • The Religion of Love -- fin amour or “courtly love” (esp. Bks. 1-3) • History vs. His/Her Story -- focus, character, and theme (esp. Bks. 2-4)

  8. T&C: Very Ambitious Objectives • Classical traditions explored • Philosophical analysis thru literature • Interrogating Societal Codes/Ideologies of Love • Developing Richly Developed Characters

  9. Fin amour (aka “courtly love”) • Worship of lady • Ennoblement of lover(s) -- esp. man • Secret relationships • Deep (usually male) emotion • Recurrent image/metaphor patterns: • eyes/visual images & dynamics • religious metaphors • STILL PART OF WESTERN IDEOLOGY OF LOVE (cf. popular song lyrics)

  10. History vs. His ’n’ Her Story • intertwined questions of focus, character, theme, esp. in Bks. 2-4 • dual focus (big-picture history vs. close-up individual stories) • complexly motivated characters • and so what?

  11. From Troy to London Town: Medieval British History/Genealogy • Meleager (Diomede’s ancestor) • Theban War (D’s dad et al.) • Troy • Rome (Aeneas, Romulus/Remus) • Britain (founded by Brutus, descendant of Aeneas) • “Arthur” (ca. 500-540?) • 14th-c. England • later audiences addressed at end of poem

  12. Time and Trouthe: Theme in Structure • Structure, Narrative Tactics, Theme • esp. Bks. 4-5 • ME trouthe = MnE truth/troth • Zodiacal and Seasonal Clues • Bk. 1:23 - April • Bk. 2:8 - Taurus (May 3) • Bk. 3:90 - Cancer/Gemini (June) • Bk. 4:5 - early Leo (late July - early August) • Bk. 5:193 - early Leo to 2+ mos. (Sept./Libra+)

  13. Time and Trouthe, cont’d. • How long does the affair last??? • Linear vs. cyclic time • different value systems: idealistic/pragmatic • repeated concerns/imagery appear in Canterbury Tales

  14. Love, Fortune, Fate: Philosophy, Image, and Theme • Boethian Imagery and Theme in T&C • esp. Bks. 3-5 • cf. Consolation of Philosophy (trans. Chaucer) • wheels that “make the world go round” • “the ties that bind” • harmony, bonds, unity, bondage, (un)freedom • from philosophical advice to experience?? • (Eternal) Love as binding force of universe • Final values placed on T’s and C’s loves??

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