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Chaucerian Ecopoetics

Deconstructing Anthropocentrism in the Canterbury Tales

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Shawn Normandin

    1. Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

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  • Applies ecocriticism to one of the most canonical medieval British poets
  • Examines the Canterbury Tales and Chaucer’s rhetoric in novel ways
  • Highlights twenty-first century discussions within the environmental humanities of the Anthropocene

Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages (TNMA)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction: Chaucer and Ecopoetics

    • Shawn Normandin
    Pages 1-50

  3. Ecophobia and the Knight’s Tale

    • Shawn Normandin
    Pages 51-84

  4. Nocturnal Ecologies: Metaphor in the Miller’s and the Reeve’s Tale

    • Shawn Normandin
    Pages 85-121

  5. Iterability, Anthropocentrism, and the Franklin’s Tale

    • Shawn Normandin
    Pages 123-149

  6. The Unnatural Personifications of the Physician’s Tale

    • Shawn Normandin
    Pages 151-179

  7. Ruminating on and in the Monk’s Tale

    • Shawn Normandin
    Pages 181-215

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 217-226
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Keywords

About this book

Chaucerian Ecopoetics performs ecocritical close readings of Geoffrey Chaucer's poetry.  Shawn Normandin explains how Chaucer's language demystifies the aesthetic charm of his narratives and calls into question the anthropocentrism they often depict. This text combines ecocriticism with reading techniques associated with deconstruction, to provide innovative interpretations of the General Prologue, the Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, the Reeve's Tale, the Franklin's Tale, the Physician's Tale, and the Monk's Tale. In stressing the importance of rhetorical nuance and literary form, Chaucerian Ecopoetics enables readers to better understand the ideological prehistory of today's environmental crisis.



Reviews

“This volume offers much for the Chaucerian critic committed to or simply intrigued by ecocritical approaches to literature. Normandin makes … appreciated tales vital to our understanding not just of Chaucer's time period, but our own.” (Susan Morrison, The Medieval Review, scholarworks.iu.edu, June 28, 2019) “Because of its novel and ambitious argument and strategies for interpretation, Chaucerian Ecopoetics has wonderfully provocative and original insights throughout.” (Lesley Kordecki, Professor of English, DePaul University, USA)

“Chaucerian Ecopoetics is a smart, lively, unsentimental, and accessible exposition of why environmentality matters to our understanding of the late Middle Ages. Through intensely ecocritical close readings of various Canterbury Tales, Shawn Normandin demonstrates how Chaucer explores via narrative shifts in point of view the entangled intimacy of the human and the nonhuman. This engaging book will interest medievalists and environmental humanists alike.” (Jeffrey J. Cohen, Dean of Humanities, Arizona State University, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Shawn Normandin

About the author

Shawn Normandin is Associate Professor of English at Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea. 



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Chaucerian Ecopoetics

  • Book Subtitle: Deconstructing Anthropocentrism in the Canterbury Tales

  • Authors: Shawn Normandin

  • Series Title: The New Middle Ages

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90457-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-90456-6Published: 26 June 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08020-4Published: 26 January 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-90457-3Published: 12 June 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2945-5936

  • Series E-ISSN: 2945-5944

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 226

  • Topics: Medieval Literature, Literary Theory

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