[ Authorial Ego in Early English Vernacular Literature. ]
- Title
- [ Authorial Ego in Early English Vernacular Literature. ]
- Published
- So, Francis K. H. "Authorial Ego in Early English Vernacular Literature." Review of English and American literature 10 (2017): 1-50. [蘇其康.古早地方話英文文學的自我意識.英美文學評論. 10期 (2017): 1-50.] [N. B.: this article is in Chinese.]
- Review
- So aims to outline the self-consciously "authorial ego" with samples selected from prologues of medieval vernacular literary texts written in England, namely Layamon's "Brut," Wace's "Roman de Brut," Lydgate's "Troy Book," Mannyng's "Chronicle," the anonymous "Cursor Mundi," and Gower's "Confessio Amantis." In the first 25 lines of the prologue in CA, So has observed four examples indicative of Gower's authorial intention. So argues that Gower is primarily motivated by a consciousness of his own benefits rather than an interest in English nationhood, as has been argued in recent heated discussions. He sees the resort to classical symbol in the CA as Gower's means of safeguarding his own self-interest. He finds that Gower is aware of 1) his own writing as means of interaction, which responds to the moral themed writing tradition; 2) the competition among contemporary English writers; 3) the political circumstances; and 4) historic positioning. In each of these, So has caught a glimpse of a self, or the ego: an ego that aims to transcend the shade of influence cast by previous writers, an ego that intends to win over the reader amid the competition with his contemporaries, an ego who is sensitive to his political safety, and an ego who is caring about his own involvement in developing history. Noticing the possible correlation of Gower's historical sense of writing and Gower's individual benefits, So borrows from Pierre Bourdieu's theory to justify Gower's self-interested writing. On the one hand, So points out that historically Gower must have enjoyed some class advantage--"cultural capital," in Bourdieu's theory. On the other, Gower's advantageous language skill in classics continuously enhances the influential power of classics in the mind of his reader, which earns him further symbolic capital, as defined by Bourdieu. He infers that Gower's writing would result in a consolidation and an enhancement of his existing social advantages, and thus his own interest would be further defended. [XW. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2017
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis