The book begins with a brief prefatory discussion of its relation to structuralist and post-structuralist criticism. The first chapter, Apocryphal Voices', surveys the basis of modern critical approaches to l>personal> and irony' in Chaucer's poetry, and suggests that such approaches are better suited to unequivocally written contexts. A systematic hesitation between a wholly written and a wholly spoken context requires critical distinctions between types of l>persona/l>, and a number of distinctions in the range between l>persona/l> and voice. Morality in its Context' examines the Pardoner...

How does Chaucer portray the various male pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales? How manly is Troilus? To what extent can the spirit and terminology of recent feminist criticism inform the study of Chaucer's men? Is there such a thing as a distinct Chaucerian masculinity', or does it appear in a multitude of different forms? These are some of the questions that the contributors to this ground-breaking and provocative volume attempt to answer, using a diversity of critical methods and theories. Some look at the behaviour of noble or knightly men; some at clerics, or businessmen, or churls; others...

The manuscript copies of Chaucer's works preserve valuable information concerning Chaucer's linguistic practices and the ways in which scribes responded to these. This book draws on recent developments in Middle English dialectology, textual criticism and the application of computers to manuscript studies to assess the evidence Chaucerian manuscripts provide for reconstructing Chaucer's own language and his linguistic environment. This book considers how scribes, editors and Chaucerian poets transmitted and updated Chaucer's language and the implications of this for our understanding of...