IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 829: Conduct, Con Jobs, and the Structures of Everyday Life in Middle English

Moderator/Chair:	Andrew Galloway, Department of English, Cornell University
Paper 829-a	The Importance of Peter Idley's Social Career to His Text, Instructions to his Son (Language: English) Yoshinobu Kudo, Department of English Language & Literature, Kanazawa Gakuin University Index terms: Daily Life, Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English, Social History
Paper 829-b	Chaucer and the Art of the Grift (Language: English) Kathryn Laity, Department of English, College of Saint Rose, New York Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Rhetoric
Abstract	Paper -a: Abstract withheld Paper -b: 'Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat', David Maurer wrote in his linguistic study The Big Con. Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale offers a narrative of crime. As in his fabliaux there's a delight in the spinning of the yarn even while he deplores the deception. Nonetheless, I will argue that Chaucer reveals a grifter's appreciation for the aristocratic con because he recognises it shares the same engine as his poetry: the power of a good story.