Confessing Something New: The Twenty-First Canon of the Fourth Lateran Council and English Literature.
- Author/Editor
- Larson, Wendy.
- Title
- Confessing Something New: The Twenty-First Canon of the Fourth Lateran Council and English Literature.
- Published
- Larson, Wendy. "Confessing Something New: The Twenty-First Canon of the Fourth Lateran Council and English Literature." In Maureen B. M. Boulton, ed. Literary Echoes of the Fourth Lateran Council in England and France, 1215-1405. Papers in Mediaeval Studies, no. 31. Toronto, Ontario: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2019. Pp. 229-70.
- Review
- Larson seeks to show that "The frequent appearance of confession in Middle English literature after 1215 suggests medieval writers perceived the usefulness of confession as a rhetorical tool, and appropriated the ecclesiastical form to use it for literary purposes" (229). She selects for evidence "the confessional model" as exemplified in the "Confessio Amantis," the "Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale," and Hoccleve's "Male Regle." Her discussion of the CA covers pp. 240-43. Larson accepts that Gower is applying the confessional model without irony, although she notes that "'Confessio Amantis' explores the power of the confessional format even as the limitations of the form itself seem to be reached" with "the setting at the court of Venus rather than a church" (241), an intentional, and in Larson's judgment essentially successful, exploitation of the confessional form: "In following Amans' progress through the sins and witnessing how he comes to understand his true nature and status, and his humility at the end, it is possible to see the efficaciousness of confession even if it is not technically one aimed at Christian moral development" (242). The selection of Genius's exempla sometimes troubles her ("such as the multiple tales involving incest"[242]), but for Larson's purposes--illustrating the value of confession for medieval readers--the CA is quite successful. In it, "confession has proved a fertile practice for self-definition, even when only the form is followed, rather than form in the service of a spiritual end, as in a Christian confession" (243). Ultimately she summarizes her reading of Amans, the Canon's Yeoman, and Hoccleve thusly: "The appearance of these literary confessions can be traced back to the practice of annual auricular confession endorsed at the Fourth Lateran Council. Such texts influenced English literature profoundly by making confessional discourse familiar, and thus available as a rich rhetorical resource authors both appropriated and reworked for a variety of purposes" (270). [RFY. Copyright. John Gower Society eJGN 41.2.]
- Date
- 2019
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Backgrounds and General Criticism