The old speaker in Middle English literature often claims to be impaired because of age. This admission is often followed by narratives that directly contradict it, as speakers, such as the Reeve in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or Amans in Gower's Confessio Amantis, proceed to perform even as they claim debility. More than the modesty topos, this contradiction exists, the book argues, as prosthesis: old age brings with it debility, but discussing age-related impairments augments the old, impaired body, while simultaneously undercutting and emphasizing bodily impairments. This language of prosthesis becomes a metaphor for the works these speakers use to fashion narrative, which exist as incomplete yet powerful sources.
Publikation durchsuchen
Bibliographische Angaben
Auflage
1/2021
Copyrightjahr
2021
ISBN-Print
978-1-64189-254-4
ISBN-Online
978-1-64189-255-1
Verlag
Arc Humanities Press, Yorkshire
Reihe
Borderlines
Sprache
Englisch
Seiten
160
Produkttyp
Monographie
Inhaltsverzeichnis
KapitelSeiten
Table of contents Kein Zugriff
Acknowledgements Kein Zugriff
Old Man Yells at Cloud: Old Bodies and Common Complaints Kein Zugriff
Four Aging Authorities: Aristotle, Cicero, Juvenal, Maximianus Kein Zugriff
The Timeliness of Age: Narrative Economies and Young Minstrels in Wynnere Kein Zugriff
Narrating Age: The Old Stories of Elde Kein Zugriff
Worthy Narrations Kein Zugriff
General Portraits of Age and Ability Kein Zugriff
Dirty Tricks and Textual Transgressions Kein Zugriff
Politics is Prologue Kein Zugriff
Hoccleve’s Trace and Empty Inheritances Kein Zugriff
Erasing Prosthesis: Printing Paratexts Kein Zugriff
Broken Bodies and Narrating Destruction: Troy and Caxton Kein Zugriff
Imprinting Age: Caxton’s Cicero Kein Zugriff
Papa Don’t Preach: Correct Texts and a Genealogical Tradition Kein Zugriff
The Old Terms of Prosthesis Kein Zugriff
Polychronicon and Old Histories Kein Zugriff
Restoring Prostheses: Gower’s Old Speech Fills the Gaps Kein Zugriff
Remember Gower’s Old Body Kein Zugriff
“This ’longs the Text”: Gower as Medieval Prosthesis Kein Zugriff
