The Mediaeval Literary Theory of Satire and Its Relevance to the Works of Gower, Langland, and Chaucer.
- Author/Editor
- Miller, Paul Scott.
- Title
- The Mediaeval Literary Theory of Satire and Its Relevance to the Works of Gower, Langland, and Chaucer.
- Published
- Miller, Paul Scott. "The Mediaeval Literary Theory of Satire and Its Relevance to the Works of Gower, Langland, and Chaucer." Ph.D. Diss. Queen's University, Belfast 1982. DAI 51(4): 1222A.
- Review
- "In this study, 'satire' is not used in any modern sense, but in the classical and mediaeval sense: satire is a specific body of poetry founded in ancient Rome and developed in Western Christendom during the Middle Ages. Indeed, much recent scholarship on Roman satire has rightly taken pains to distinguish between the formal satire of the Roman poets Lucilius, Horace, Persius, and Juvenal on the one hand, and, on the other hand, that variety of post-Renaissance literature named 'satire' for want of a more appropriate literary category. That distinction is preserved here, for it is an objective of this study to investigate, without reference to twentieth-century literary prejudices, the nature of satire in the Middle Ages. There is a fundamental justification for this approach. We are familiar with the boundaries and conventions of classical, renaissance, and modern literary genres thanks to the assiduity of generations of scholars; but little corresponding work has been undertaken on mediaeval literary genres. Once it is known what mediaeval scholars and writers understood by the noun 'satura' ('satire,' sometimes spelt 'satira' or 'satyra') and the adjective 'satiricus' ('satirical;' used as a substantive to mean 'satirist'), it will be possible to identify mediaeval satirical works. Once sufficient mediaeval satires have been identified, it will be possible to form an estimate of the mediaeval satirical tradition. None of this can be achieved by applying modern generic definitions to mediaeval literature. My purpose in the following pages is threefold. First, by investigating the way in which the classical satires of Horace, Persius, and Juvenal were studied in the schools during the Middle Ages, I hope to reconstruct the mediaeval definition of satire. Second, I propose to identify and classify works which, by reference to prevailing contemporary critical theory, can be shown to be the true mediaeval successors to Roman satire. Third, I intend to apply the findings to the works of three major English poets writing in the second half of the fourteenth century: Gower, Langland, and Chaucer." (Abstract shortened by UMI.) [eJGN 39.1]
- Date
- 1982
- Gower Subjects
- Backgrounds and General Criticism