| Paper 528-a | Estranging Language in Chaucer's 'The Reeve's Tale'
(Language: English)
David Hadbawnik, Department of English, American University of Kuwait, Kuwait City
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Medievalism and Antiquarianism, Printing History, Rhetoric |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
In The Neighboring Text, George Edmondson writes, 'What is the language of the Other, and what kind of jouissance does it... enjoy, such that poets and editors seem to [ascribe] that enjoyment to others (especially 'Father Chaucer')?'. I will examine the 'othering' of language within 'The Reeve's Tale', wherein the Reeve pursues a game of linguistic estrangement based on regional and class difference ('flour' is 'flour', 'flower', 'floor', etc.). I will also explore print editions of Chaucer from the 16th century and beyond, and how these alter the language of 'The Reeve's Tale' for various audiences and times. Taken together, I argue that these internal and external acts of linguistic othering shed light on problems of language formation both intrinsic and attributed to Chaucer's poetry.
Paper -b:
La Male Regle is one of Hoccleve's autobiographical poems in which the poet displays not only humour but also self-confrontation. Listing all his follies, which are attributed to his youth, he stands out as a 'self' that has transformed from being an 'other' self that has committed many sins. In this way, the persona of La Male Regle, also named Hoccleve, presents a complaint of the 'other' self with a confessional tone. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to analyse Hoccleve's La Male Regle as a reflection of Hoccleve's confrontation with his self that is othered by his follies. In this way, the paper aims at presenting a discussion of Hoccleve's poetics of the self and the othered self in his La Male Regle.
Paper -c:
According to Simon Horobin, in the 15th century personal letters by female authors such as Margaret Paston, 'the scholarly consensus is that lexis, syntax, and pragmatic choices can be safely assumed to be due to the input of the author'. For example, irrespective of difference in amanuenses, she almost always started her letter with 'Right (reverent and) worshipful husband' to John I, while to her two sons more casually with 'I greet you well'. This paper discusses whether there are some noticeable influences from the amanuenses at the level of morphological items like demonstrative, personal, or relative pronouns in the letters of Margaret. I also try inspecting whether the letters of Margaret and amanuenses can be included in the same text type.
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