Judith Ferster, "The Politics of Narration in the Frame
of the Canterbury Tales.""
by Doryjane Birrer
Ferster, Judith.
"The Politics of Narration in the Frame of the Canterbury Tales."
from Chaucer on Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
In Chaucer on Interpretation, Judith Ferster examines Chaucer's concern with "the
perils of discourse" (21). Using principles of modern hermeneutics,
she explores the problems of interpretation that recur as themes in the House
ofFame, the Parliament of Fowls, the Book of the Duchess, and the CanterburyTales
(the Knight's, Clerk's, and Wife of Bath's tales, and the General Prologue).
This presentation will focus on Ferster's discussion of the GeneralPrologue
and the "too-powerful powerlessness of the author," as well asFerster's
conclusion that "Identity, meaning, and political power are independent
and yet are created in and for specific social contexts" (140).
Introduction
1. The relationship between self and other: dualistic and dialectical
2. Personal identity, political power, and literary meaning
3. Phenomenological hermeneutics
The Narrative Frame of the Canterbury Tales
1. "All negotiations and arguments concern the shape and meaning of
thetext" (139)
2. The Host: consumer as producer of text
3. The Poet: producer as consumer of text
The Host
1. The problem of authority: gaining and losing power
2. The Host's attempts to guide both tales and pilgrims
3. Harry Bailey as Everyman: the power of interpretation
The Poet
1. The problem of authority: overt impotence and covert power
2. "Objective considerations determine the shape of the narrative"
(152)
3. The story of the story of the Canterbury Tales
Host and Poet, Audience and Author
1. Interpretation as control
2. Chaucer's retraction
3. "Interpretation can never be finished, only stopped" (156)
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