'I wol nat serve . . .': Authority and Submission in late medieval English literature
- Author/Editor
- Charnley, Susan Christina De Long
- Title
- 'I wol nat serve . . .': Authority and Submission in late medieval English literature
- Published
- Charnley, Susan Christina De Long. "'I wol nat serve . . .': Authority and Submission in late medieval English literature." Ph.D. dissertation. Michigan State University, 1996.
- Review
- "The rightness of relations is a major theme in late medieval literature. The criteria for rightness include the identity of wills, the doctrine of submission, and the imitatio Dei. The identity of wills refers to the sharing of goals and desires shared by two persons in a hierarchical relationship (king and subject, master and servant, husband and wife, et cetera). The doctrine of submission establishes obedience as a prerequisite for authority. The imitatio Dei urges likeness to Christ as the foundation for rightness. These three criteria emerged from the junctures of feudal, commercial, and Christian ideologies." Gower is one of the authors Charnley considers to illustrate the appearance of these themes, along with Chaucer, Julian of Norwich, the Pearl-poet, DeGuileville, and Langland." [JGN 16.1]
- Date
- 1996
- Gower Subjects
- Backgrounds and General Criticism