Chaucer's Use of Rheoric in the "General Prologue" and Linkages of The Canterbury Tales

<p>The intent of this study is to discuss rhetoric in relation to the "General Prologue" and headlinks of the Canterbury Tales, and, by applying medieval rhetorical tradition to the "General Prologue," to question the long held view that the "Prologue" is without model or antecedent in tradition, that it is a triumph of realism over artifice No less a Chaucerian scholar than Fred M. Robinson has said that "for the Prologue, as for the general device of the Canterbury pilgrimage, no real model has been found";4 and John Livingston Lowes maintained that "there has never before been the like of that singularly modern thing — to use our most complacent term of approbation — the Prologue."</p> <p>In discussing rhetoric in relation to the "General Prologue" and linkages this study will in particular focus on the following questions: What was the tradition of rhetoric in Chaucer's time? How can tradition be related to the "General Prologue" and headlinks? What is the function of rhetoric in the artistry of these sections of the work? Was it used fortuitously or advisedly? Expanded under­standing of the late fourteenth century, of its literary traditions„ and of the function of rhetoric in composition, combined, will, I hope, throw light on Chaucer's technique.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Humanities

Year

1970

Author dc:creator

• Streich, Ellen

• Humanities
• Arts and Humanities

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.dominican.edu/humanities-print-theses/179

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.dominican.edu:humanities-print-theses-1178