A Note on Gower's Persona.
- Author/Editor
- Strohm, Paul
- Title
- A Note on Gower's Persona.
- Published
- Strohm, Paul. "A Note on Gower's Persona." In Arts of Interpretation: The Text and Its Contexts 700-1600. Essays on Medieval and Renaissance Literature in Honor of E. Talbot Donaldson. Ed. Carruthers, Mary J and Kirk, Elizabeth D. Norman, OK: Pilgrim Books, 1982, pp. 293-297. ISBN 093766460X
- Review
- Strohm argues that the most appropriate "framework for understanding Gower's persona in action remains the threefold scheme which E. Talbot Donaldson first described in 'Chaucer the Pilgrim.' Just as Donaldson made us aware of the interaction in Chaucer's poetry between and among Chaucer the Pilgrim, Chaucer the Poet, and the historical Chaucer, so is our enjoyment of Confession Amantis sharpened by the interplay of Gower as Amans, Gower as Poet or 'auctor' of the 'presens libellus,' and the historical John Gower" (p. 295). Strohm goes on to point out how this interplay is made possible by the assumption that the text will be apprehended in written, not oral, form. He concludes that, in the end, all the three personae come together into one, just as Chaucer's do, in Donaldson's interpretation. [PN. Copyright the John Gower Society. JGN 3.2]
- Date
- 1982
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis