Chaucer's Clerk's Tale and the Monstrous Critics.

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Denise N. Baker, Associate Dean (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Over thirty years ago, James Sledd reversed the prevailing critical opinion about one of Chaucer's most perplexing tales in his essay, "The Clerk's Tale: The Monsters and the Critics." He refuted the arguments about the monstrous cruelty of Walter in testing his wife and of Griselda in surrendering her children by insisting that the tale must not be read as a realistic fiction. "Our difficulties will be lessened," Sledd writes, "if we remember that Chaucer does not invite us, but ultimately forbids us, to apply the rules of his fictional world outside his fiction" (169).

Additional Information

Publication
Postscript: Publication of the Philological Association of the Carolinas, 3 (1986), 61-68
Language: English
Date: 1986
Keywords
The Clerk's Tale: The Monsters and the Critics, Geoffrey Chaucer, Criticism

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