Although often now in the shadow of his contemporary, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower was once seen as at least Chaucer’s equal. He wrote substantial works in English, French and Latin: in this course we will study his great English work, the Confessio Amantis. The work is a huge story collection, comparable in some ways to the Canterbury Tales, but framed very differently as the confession of a lover, Amans, to his priest, Genius, who tells stories to help Amans understand the nature of love and sin. The stories are drawn from a range of sources – classical, scriptural, and contemporary. This course will consider the story frame and some examples of individual tales, in order to explore Gower’s role in the development of Middle English as a language for the creation of literature. Particular attention will be paid to tales that are sources or analogues for other writers. Gower’s stories are sometimes funny, sometimes touching, occasionally obscene, and always full of surprises.
- Dozent/in: Elisabeth Dutton