Visual perception in Chaucer.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Yager-Berkowitz, Susan.

Contributor:

Wenzel, Siegfried, advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature, Medieval.

0297.

Penn dissertations--English.

English--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--English.

English--Penn dissertations.

0297.

Physical Description:

304 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 52-11A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

Chaucer employs a rich vocabulary of terms to describe the process of visual perception, including some which he apparently introduced into English. This dissertation, after a preliminary survey to theories of vision in the Middle Ages, analyzes Chaucer's treatment of visual perception, and its implications for a Chaucerian epistemology, by means of examining this vocabulary. Chaucer's terms for seeing appear in his philosophical and scientific writings, in proverbs, and in narrators' asides. The Boece is of particular interest in assessing Chaucer's treatment of visual perception; De consolatione philosophiae Book 5, metrum 4 asserts that perception should occur as an exercise of the perceiver's will rather than as a passive reception of stimuli. Adopting David Lindberg's terms, we may describe Boethius' statement on perception as adhering to an extramissive rather than intromissive theory of vision. The dissertation then traces the influence of Boethius' ideas on perception, and especially of 5 m.4, on Chaucer's narratives. A number of passages employing Boethian language and metaphors warn against receiving external impressiouns; in most instances Chaucer's impressionable characters fail to perceive correctly.

Failure to perceive is in some respects related to gender, as males who attempt to use perception as a means of attaining power are found to lack both sight and insight. Chapter four discusses the figure of Argus from Ovid's Metamorphoses as emblematic for Chaucer of the weakness of masculine perceivers. The Merchant's Januarie, the Clerk's Walter, and Troilus are among Chaucer's failed male perceivers; each of them, like Argus, focuses has gaze on an elusive female figure.

Chaucer also explores the subject of self-delusion and hallucination, particularly in the House of Fame and the tales of the Man of Law, Franklin, and Canon's Yeoman. Chapter five discusses Chaucer's use of illusion and self-delusion in terms of sickness, moral failure, and game-playing. Chapter six, focusing on Chaucer's use of the verb gauren, discusses the mocking perceiver as participating in a form of self-delusion.

Notes:

Thesis (Ph.D. in English) -- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, 1991.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-11, Section: A, page: 3922.

Adviser: Siegfried Wenzel.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.