ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Lee Patterson, whose complicated relationship to the New Historical movement is illuminating in terms of its concept of audience. The main difference between Patterson's and Dinshaw's concepts of audience, therefore, has to do with their different definitions of historicity. Patterson likewise objects to the Renaissance New Historicists' over-emphasis upon the structures of culture and society, at the expense of individual subjectivity. Patterson's image of Chaucer's audience, then, is multiple historically. The responses of modern and medieval readers to Chaucer's works are different, and while Patterson is more interested in the medieval readings, the modern ones must be taken into account in the historian's analysis. Patterson, however, forces a distinction by focusing on specific readers. First, Patterson implicitly adopts Kittredge's dramatic principle. He argues that the Prioress is clearly distinct from Chaucer, and that her Tale is an expression of her own personality, biases, and limitations.
