Chaucerian imperfections: The other and the turbulant self

This thesis is interested in forms of “imperfection” in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I define “imperfection” as an authorial gesture performed to narrate an idealized virwhile depriving it from its idealism. The imperfection of a virtue, however, does not happen absolutely. It is the character’s incomplete, distorted, or decadent command of a given virtue, rather than the viritself, that makes it imperfect. Consisting of three chapters, the thesis examines Chaucer’s imperfection of things idealized within two medieval spaces: a) the ecclesiastical institution of Church and b) the secular institution of Knighthood. This is why the thesis settled on the Prioress’s Tale and the Knight’s Tale as its only foci of discussion, though I seek to connect what the tales have to narrate to a few medieval primary sources as well as few other literary works.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. in English

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Seif, Ahmed

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gregory Heyworth
• Ivo Kamps
• Lindy Brady

• English
• Literature
• Medieval
• Creative Writing

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1180

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-2179