Public Poetry and the Psychology of Confession in John Gower's Confessio Amantis.
- Author/Editor
- Castilho Ribeiro Santos, Paulo Eduardo.
- Title
- Public Poetry and the Psychology of Confession in John Gower's Confessio Amantis.
- Published
- Castilho Ribeiro Santos, Paulo Eduardo. "Public Poetry and the Psychology of Confession in John Gower's Confessio Amantis." Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Ottawa, 2023.
- Review
- "This dissertation analyses the political, confessional, and psychological frames of John Gower's 'Confessio Amantis' (c. 1390-93). This dissertation proposes an integrated understanding of the poem's frames, in which both the confessional and psychological frames respond to the political one that Gower presents in the poem's Prologue. By moving the discussion of politics to a setting of unrequited courtly love and then establishing a need for the failed lover to confess (his sins against love), Gower creates complex layers of meaning. Each of this dissertation's chapters examines Gower and the 'Confessio' in a different context. The first two chapters provide a broader perspective on the external factors that influence Gower's writing. Chapter 1 examines Gower's self-establishment as a figure of authority writing in the vernacular to lay a foundation for the meticulous production of his texts. Chapter 2 examines the English political situation that led Gower to write the 'Confessio,' in particular politics of 1380s and how they are represented in the poem, as well as Gower's position as a public poet. The 'Confessio' is a response to the division Gower sees corrupting both the nation and its people; this chapter thus sheds light on how the poet moves from the body politic to the individual. Chapter 3 includes an overview of confession as a practice in the late Middle Ages and compares medieval manuals for penitents and theological treatises on confession to the portrayal of the lover's confession in the poem. This chapter establishes that confession is not just a listing of sins but an examination of the penitent's conscience and that both the penitent and the priest learn from the confessional process. Chapter 4 studies the frame characters, the lover and the priest (i.e., Amans and Genius), and how they represent the mental faculties of Will and Wit in Gower's scheme of the psyche. Highlighting their development as the confession progresses, the chapter shows how these characters come to represent the model of the readers' education. Finally, Chapter 5 delves into the perceived 'incongruities' of the poem, particularly those in Book VIII, and suggests a reading that reconciles its seeming disparate frames under one unified voice." [eJGN 42.2]
- Date
- 2023
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis