"Confessio Amantis": Gower's Art in Transforming His Sources into Exempla of the Seven Deadly Sins
- Author/Editor
- Shaw, Judith Davis.
- Title
- "Confessio Amantis": Gower's Art in Transforming His Sources into Exempla of the Seven Deadly Sins
- Published
- Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1978): 6709A.
- Review
- "John Gower's assertion that the tales in the 'Confessio Amantis' are 'ensamples' of particular vices or virtues has variously been challenged, ignored, or misinterpreted by critics seeking to explain the relation of the tales to the confessional framework of the poem. However, an analysis of the changes that Gower made in the sources of fifteen tales from Books I and II of the 'Confessio' reveals that he consistently altered his sources in order to transform them into exempla of the Sins. But beyond adapting his source material as illustrations of vices and virtues, Gower's transformations are aimed at integrating the tales more subtly into the whole movement of the poem. This final transformation of his sources into a functioning part of the larger fiction marks the highpoint of Gower's art, for here he has not only transformed his sources, but he has also transformed the idea of 'ensamples' from isolated tales into integral parts of a complex work of art." [eJGN 40.2.]
- Date
- 1978
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations