ABSTRACT

Originally published in 1994. Chaucer is considered the first major humorist in English literature and is particularly interesting as he reflects the humor of predecessors and contemporaries as well as defines development for subsequent British humor. This collection presents essays that define the nature of Chaucerian humor, examine Chaucer’s works from a variety of theoretical perspectives, and consider genres of humor within his writing. This is an excellent work of critical discourse that adds important understanding of Chaucer as well as the field of comedy in literature.

part One|2 pages

A Prolegomenon to Defining Chaucerian Humor

chapter |19 pages

The Voice of the Past

Surveying the Reception of Chaucer’s Humor

chapter |16 pages

The Idea of Humor*

chapter |2 pages

Excerpt from Chaucer *

chapter |37 pages

A Vocabulary for Chaucerian Comedy

A Preliminary Sketch*

chapter |21 pages

Chaucer and Comedy*

part Two|2 pages

Critical Theories with the Comic Touch: Feminist, Freudian, Language, Social, and Bakhtinian Theories

chapter |18 pages

Chaucer, Freud, and the Political Economy of Wit

Tendentious Jokes in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale

chapter |24 pages

Paradoxicum Semiotica

Signs, Comedy, and Mystery in Fragment VI of the Canterbury Tales

chapter |20 pages

The Comedy of Innocence*

chapter |22 pages

Metamorphic Comedy

The Shipman’s Tale

chapter |30 pages

Rough Music in Chaucer’s

Merchant’s Tale

part Three|2 pages

“Generic” Humor: Lyric, Poetic, Demonic, Religious, Scatological, and Tragic

chapter |24 pages

Chaucer’s Dainty “Dogerei”

The “Elvyssh” Prosody of Sir Thopas*

chapter |26 pages

“Parlous Play”

Diabolic Comedy in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

chapter |30 pages

The Mind Distended

The Retraction, Miller’s Tale and Summoner’s Tale

chapter |18 pages

Chaucer’s Creative Comedy

A Study of the Miller’s Tale and the Shipman’s Tale*

chapter |28 pages

Felicity and Mutability

Boethian Framework of the Troilus*