Law and Religion in Chaucer's England

ISBN-13: 9781138375819 / Angielski / Miękka / 2019 / 416 str.

HENRY ANSGAR KELLY

Opis

These essays investigate legal and religious subjects relevant to the age and places in which Geoffrey Chaucer lived and wrote, especially as reflected in The Canterbury Tales. Topics include the canon law of incest, sexual offences, prostitution, the laws of nature concerning gender distinction (focusing on Chaucer's Pardoner) and castration. Chaucer's Prioress is the starting point for the treatment of the regulations of nuns and for the presence, real and virtual, of Jews and Saracens (Muslims and pagans) in England. It concludes with a case study on the legend of St Cecilia, and a discussion of canonistic opinion on the licit limits of medicinal magic (with regard to John the Carpenter in the Miller's Tale).

Recenzje

'A valuable collection of eleven influential and deeply learned essays published since 1991 by one of the most distinguished scholars of medieval English literature and culture.' Medium Aevum '... throughout the volume Kelly engages imaginatively, energetically, and rigorously with a variety of questions. For the work presented here, and for his broader contributions to scholarship on the English Middle Ages, we will remain in his debt.' Journal of Anglican and Episcopal History

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction; Part A Sex/Gender: Shades of incest and cuckoldry: Pandarus and John of Gaunt; Bishop, prioress, and bawd in the stews of Southwark; Medieval laws and views on wife beating; The Pardoner's voice, disjunctive narrative, and modes of effemination. Part B The Sacraments: Sacraments, sacramentals, and lay piety in Chaucer's England; Penitential theology and law at the turn of the 15th century. Part C Non-Christians and England: Jews ands Saracens in Chaucer's England: a review of the evidence; 'The Prioress's Tale' in context: good and bad reports of non-Christians in 14th-century England; Chaucer's Knight and the northern 'crusades': the example of Henry Bolingbroke. Part D Case Studies: A neo-revisionist look at Chaucer's nuns; How Cecelia came to be a saint and patron (matron?) of music; Canon law and Chaucer on licit and illicit magic; Addenda and corrigenda; Index.

O autorze

Henry Ansgar Kelly is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of English, University of California - Los Angeles, USA