ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 defines and explores a mind of exile at work in the literature of the later middle ages. Beginning with the Vox Clamantis, I argue that John Gower’s inclusion of an exiled figure in Book I transforms the poem’s underlying ethos by shifting it from a voice of the people to a voice on the margins of society. Gower’s text gives us a “baseline” of sorts for exilic narrative that we will see evolve throughout the chapters that follow. Building on that narrative, the chapter takes as its case study the medieval story of Constance as recorded by Nicholas Trivet, John Gower, and Geoffrey Chaucer. I argue that a mind of exile is at work in each of their versions where exile is a catalyst for deep transformation, both personal and social. The chapter concludes, speculatively, on how a mind of exile might inform Chaucer’s reference to “lolleres in the wynd” in the Man of Law’s Tale’s endlink.
