The Pennsylvania State University Press
ISBN: 978-0-271-09981-1
The 14th-century writer Geoffrey Chaucer included many episodes of “violence, victimhood, and overwhelming grief or loss” in his works. The nine papers in this collection explore how he presents these traumatic experiences and what they reveal about both the writer and his medieval world.
Excerpt:
It is our hope that the essays in this volume will introduce ideas that enlarge readers’ appreciation of how one exquisitely acute observer of his fourteenth-century circumstance – the philosophical poet Geoffrey Chaucer – might aid us as we navigate pathways and trials that persist in our time. Patricia Clare Ingham writes of trauma that it “can never be rendered simply; even when understood in mimetic terms, trauma remains filled with unspeakable things and fraught with desire.” The scholars featured here show us how Chaucer’s verse and prose communicate responses to traumatic human phenomena that can be indescribable in their suddenness, their shock and horror, and their unseen yet long-lasting consequences among survivors, witnesses, and future generations.
Who is this book for?
This book can be difficult to read and was undoubtedly difficult for its authors to write, as it deals with challenging subjects, particularly violence, including sexual violence. The nine papers analyse Chaucer’s works, primarily The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, for what they reveal about interpersonal violence. Two essays focus on other forms of trauma: slavery and plague.
The collection also addresses issues that remain highly relevant and frequently appear in today’s headlines. Hopefully, it will find a wide audience among scholars interested not only in Chaucer, but also in broader medieval perspectives on violence and trauma.
“Too often our desire to justify the relevance of medieval studies (particularly in times when funding for the humanities is in crisis) leads us to force a modern political or social parallel between the work’s historical moment and our own; but in this volume, no sleight of hand is needed. Since the book’s inception—as a series of sessions on Chaucer and trauma for the (subsequently canceled) 2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies—the painful relevance of the traumas referenced in Chaucer’s poetry to our own time has only become more stark.” ~ review by Mary M. Alcaro in Modern Philology
The Editors
Susanna Fein is Professor Emerita of English at Kent State University. David Raybin is Professor Emeritus of English at Eastern Illinois University.
Chaucer and Trauma
Edited by Susanna Fein and David Raybin
The Pennsylvania State University Press
ISBN: 978-0-271-09981-1
The 14th-century writer Geoffrey Chaucer included many episodes of “violence, victimhood, and overwhelming grief or loss” in his works. The nine papers in this collection explore how he presents these traumatic experiences and what they reveal about both the writer and his medieval world.
Excerpt:
It is our hope that the essays in this volume will introduce ideas that enlarge readers’ appreciation of how one exquisitely acute observer of his fourteenth-century circumstance – the philosophical poet Geoffrey Chaucer – might aid us as we navigate pathways and trials that persist in our time. Patricia Clare Ingham writes of trauma that it “can never be rendered simply; even when understood in mimetic terms, trauma remains filled with unspeakable things and fraught with desire.” The scholars featured here show us how Chaucer’s verse and prose communicate responses to traumatic human phenomena that can be indescribable in their suddenness, their shock and horror, and their unseen yet long-lasting consequences among survivors, witnesses, and future generations.
Who is this book for?
This book can be difficult to read and was undoubtedly difficult for its authors to write, as it deals with challenging subjects, particularly violence, including sexual violence. The nine papers analyse Chaucer’s works, primarily The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde, for what they reveal about interpersonal violence. Two essays focus on other forms of trauma: slavery and plague.
The collection also addresses issues that remain highly relevant and frequently appear in today’s headlines. Hopefully, it will find a wide audience among scholars interested not only in Chaucer, but also in broader medieval perspectives on violence and trauma.
“Too often our desire to justify the relevance of medieval studies (particularly in times when funding for the humanities is in crisis) leads us to force a modern political or social parallel between the work’s historical moment and our own; but in this volume, no sleight of hand is needed. Since the book’s inception—as a series of sessions on Chaucer and trauma for the (subsequently canceled) 2020 International Congress on Medieval Studies—the painful relevance of the traumas referenced in Chaucer’s poetry to our own time has only become more stark.” ~ review by Mary M. Alcaro in Modern Philology
The Editors
Susanna Fein is Professor Emerita of English at Kent State University. David Raybin is Professor Emeritus of English at Eastern Illinois University.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.
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