Memory and Confession in Middle English Literature.
- Author/Editor
- Tracy, Kisha G.
- Title
- Memory and Confession in Middle English Literature.
- Published
- Tracy, Kisha G. Memory and Confession in Middle English Literature. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. 53-66.
- Review
- Tracy is interested in the connection between memory and confession, which she finds is examined in much of the major poetry in Middle English: "Piers Plowman," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Chaucerian romance, and--in chapter four--"Gower: Confessio Amantis and the Fear of Forgetting" (53-66). She focuses on "two pivotal scenes" (54), both from the frame narrative: Book I, 216-29, in which Amans, about to undergo confession, expresses concerns that his memory will be insufficient to facilitate a useful resolution, and Book VIII, 2894-97, in which Genius, the confession complete, instructs Amans to "Forget it thou and so wol I," for at this point Amans, via Venus' mirror, has come to grips with the reality of his old age, and can be relied upon for only appropriate behavior in the future. Tracy connects this kind of appropriate remembering with Gower's larger purpose, expressed in Prologue 1-11, of learning from history as "remembered" in old books. "Gower's 'Confessio Amantis'," she notes, "relies on the concern with forgetfulness in the process of confession to justify the framework of the text and defines the final stage of confession as being able to forget past sins while, at the same time, recollecting personal realities . . . . As a result of recalled memories, the confessing individual's spiritual condition is changed; his state of being is reformed after being subjected to an act of recollection. This model is reflected in the ending of the CA. After engaging in the confessional process, Amans concludes that his life, his mental being, will never be the same again" (63). [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2017
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis