"And out of fables gret wysdom men may take": Middle English Animal Fables as Vehicles of Moral Instruction.
- Author/Editor
- Kamyabee, Mohammad Hadi.
- Title
- "And out of fables gret wysdom men may take": Middle English Animal Fables as Vehicles of Moral Instruction.
- Published
- Kamyabee, Mohammad Hadi. "And out of fables gret wysdom men may take": Middle English Animal Fables as Vehicles of Moral Instruction. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Toronto, 1997. Dissertation Abstracts International A59.06. Freely available at https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/items/0fee8a77-d2c0-403f-829a-91c046d1cb35.
- Review
- Kamayabee's study re-examines "Middle English animal fables as teaching vehicles. For each fable, four governing pedagogical questions are raised and certain suggestions proposed. First, what lesson(s) does the fable teach? Does it encourage a virtue or warn against a vice? Second, who is the teacher: the poet, the narrator, or the anthropomorph? Third, to whom the lesson is addressed? Though it is often next to impossible to identify the historical audience of the fable, the imagined audience of the poet is often suggested. Fourth, how the lesson is offered? Surprise, reward, and punishment are among the most frequent didactic strategies that fables employ. 'The Introduction' establishes the background of the genre and the related traditions as well as their historical applications. Fables served as a convenient tool to teach grammar, rhetoric, and translation both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages. They were also used in sermons for purposes of edification. 'Chapter II' discusses Henryson's use of fable as a vehicle of social criticism. 'Chapter III' discusses Chaucer's NPT and ManT and the manipulation of the genre in the greater picture of 'Canterbury Tales.' The use and abuse of language are the main issue of Chaucerian fables. 'Chapter IV' discusses Gower's "Phebus and Cornide" and "Adrian and Bardus," which expound lessons to be learned from silence and justice. 'Chapter V' discusses Langland's "Belling the Cat" and its political implications. Chapter VI' discusses Lydgate's 'Isopes Fabules', 'Churl,' and 'Debate,' that teach not only practical wisdom, but also nationalism and integrity. 'Chapter VII discusses 'The Owl and the Nightingale' as an animal fable with its emphasis on justice, honesty, and above all on winning. In their different ways, medieval English animal fables teach their prospective audiences not only what to think, but more urgently how to think. This study attempts to contribute to a better understanding of Middle English animal fables in general, and of their pedagogical perspective in particular."
- Date
- 1997
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis