Narrative, Authority and Power: The Medieval Exemplum and the Chaucerian Tradition

by Larry Scanlon

Little attention has been paid to the political and ideological significance of the exemplum, a brief narrative form used to illustrate a moral. Through a study of four major works in the Chaucerian tradition (The Canterbury Tales, John Gower's Confessio Amantis, Thomas Hoccleve's Regement of Princes, and Lydgate's Fall of Princes), Scanlon redefines the exemplum as a 'narrative enactment of cultural authority'. He traces its development through the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521044251
• ISBN13: 9780521044257
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"