English Medieval Narrative in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.
- Author/Editor
- Boitani, Piero
- Title
- English Medieval Narrative in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.
- Published
- Boitani, Piero. "English Medieval Narrative in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 ISBN 0521235626
- Review
- Discusses Gower on pages 114-32. Following the theorist Viktor Shklovsky, we can identify two categories of story collections in the fourteenth century. The first of these, "based on a narrative device with some motivation, for example that of delay or dispute, which has a definite purpose," describes the Confessio Amantis as well as, among other works, the Seven Sages of Rome. Gower, "one of the greatest intellectuals of his time," develops the poem around the frame systematically, with "ethical, scientific and narrative motives" in mind. The chapter concludes with an assessment of Gower's successful narratives techniques. The study is generally concerned with types of medieval narrative--religious, comic, romance, dream-visions, story collections--and Chaucer's mastery of these.[PN. Copyright the John Gower Society. JGN 4.2 and 1.1]
- Date
- 1982
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis