The profane poetic of the Canterbury Tales

Abstract

The low standing of medieval aesthetics and literary theory is looking increasingly undeserved. The last three decades have been described by Alastair Minnis and Ian Johnson as a 'golden age' for the 'study of medieval literary theory and criticism'. It is in the wake of this scholarship that this thesis undertakes a fresh examination of the place and value of this world, as opposed to the next, in the poetics and practice of Geoffrey Chaucer. The thesis is divided into three chapters, and is framed by a substantial introduction and conclusion.