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  • Textbook
  • © 1998

Chaucer and his English Contemporaries

Prologue and Tale in The Canterbury Tales

Authors:

  1. W. A. Davenport
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  • Argues that Chaucer's independence and experimental originality can only be understood in relation to the work of his contemporaries
    Discusses the use and modification of existing literary forms by Chaucer

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    PDF

  2. Introduction: Prologue and Tale

    • W. A. Davenport
    Pages 1-8

  3. Prologues

    • W. A. Davenport
    Pages 9-49

  4. Tales

    • W. A. Davenport
    Pages 50-91

  5. Romances

    • W. A. Davenport
    Pages 92-132

  6. Chaucer, Gower and the Gawain-Poet

    • W. A. Davenport
    Pages 133-166

  7. Forms of Narrative

    • W. A. Davenport
    Pages 167-207

  8. The Good Way

    • W. A. Davenport
    Pages 208-217

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 218-245
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About this book

Modern ways of presenting Chaucer have often made his work seem 'normal' so that The Canterbury Tales and its much-studied General Prologue are seen as archetypes of narrative and prologue. Tony Davenport argues that study of Chaucer's major work alongside contemporary English poems reveals the odd and extreme aspects of Chaucer's writing as well as the daring and experimental qualities in his work. The focus of the book is on strategies of narrative and discourse, but also includes discussion of other much-studied Middle English poems.
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Keywords

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About the author

TONY DAVENPORT, Professor of English at Royal Holloway, University of London, has taught Middle English for many years and is the author of several standard books on medieval English literature.
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Bibliographic Information

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