Peggy Knapp, Chaucer and the Social Contest

by Candace France
Web posted at 8:01 PM on 3/14/96 from xtsd0213.it.wsu.edu.

Knapp, Peggy. Chaucer and the Social Contest. New York: Routledge, 1990. 160 pp.

Introduction: It is Knapp's contention that the "pleye and disport" of The Canterbury Tales reflects institutional and social changes of 14th century England. She views the CT as a boundary text, "one whose environment holds more than one configuration of power contending for preeminence as the fundamental way for its society to see life"(8). She uses the work of Bakhtin, Foucault, Raymond Williams and Fredric Jameson among others in explaining this stance. Knapp finds a multiplicity of readings here, not an authoritative "last word."

Contents: The book has three major sections with three chapters in each section. The first chapter in each section explains the discourse of competing groups; the following two chapters discuss Tales directly in the context that she has developed.

1. The Estates (Knight's Tale, Miller's Tale)
2. The Wycliffite Controversy (The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale, The Parson's Tale, and The Nun's Priest's Tale)
3. Women (The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, The Clerk's Tale, The Man of Law's Tale and The Franklin's Tale)

The Wycliffite Controversy: Knapp finds that at least part of the subversiveness of CT comes from a discourse active in the later part of the 14th century. John Wyclif, an ecclesiaste at Oxford, in attempting to master the hegemonic code of Christian discourse, decided that the sole authority for this discourse was the Bible, not the church and Bible. The ground of authority to Wycliffites changed to a new signified, the Bible. Other terms changed meaning in this discourse: the Pope became antichrist, the terms prelate and those associated with the upper ranks of the clergy (bishop, abbot, prior) now usually carried a negative connotation. In contrast, the terms "poore prestis, poor men" were positive.
Application: The Pardoner's Tale. Knapp finds this controversy embedded in this tale. For example, the ability of an unworthy ecclesiaste to offer true absolution was a burning question during Chaucer's time. The Pardoner's Prologue makes it easy to decide for the Wyclif side, yet the excellence of the Tale itself and the fact that both Wycliffites and the Church would approve of its message makes this situation ambiguous. The Church would hold that the bearer of the story, no matter how repulsive, should not be a factor in determining its worth.

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