A01=Michael St John
agent
Agent Intellect
alain
Alice Perrers
Aristotelian psychology
Aristotle's Psychology
Author_Michael St John
black
Black Knight
Boethian influence
Category=DSBB
Category=DSC
chaucer's
Chaucer's Audience
Chaucer's Dream
Chaucer's Dream Poetry
Chaucer's Dream Visions
Chaucer's House
Commune Profit
courtly
Courtly Love
Courtly Love Poetry
courtly subjectivity
Divine Comedy
Dream Visions
Edward III
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Fame's Palace
intellect
knight
lille
love
Machaut's Remede De Fortune
Marguerite Poetry
medieval courtly identity exploration
medieval English literature
medieval selfhood
Moste Nede
Myn Herte
Parva Naturalia
philosophical poetry analysis
receptive
Receptive Intellect
Royal Eagle
Somniale Danielis
Product details
- ISBN 9780754601227
- Weight: 476g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 12 Dec 2000
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Chaucer used the dream device to engage with the work of French and Italian authors and to explore the philosophical content of their poetry. His four dream visions therefore represent an important conduit through which the influence of European writers was received into English, enabling a profound transition in the way in which the 'self' was conceptualized in medieval courtly literature. Chaucer's Dream Visions is the first book length study to examine the poet's considered use of Aristotelian psychology to describe the mind of the courtly subject in its social context. The study shows that by drawing upon Aristotelian psychology, derived from his reading of Boethius, Dante, and the poets of the French court, Chaucer was able to articulate precisely those aspects of the courtly identity that are determined by language and empirical experience, and those which are transcendent of this determinism. A detailed engagement with the literature, language, and behaviour of the court therefore takes place in the dream visions, which are a genuine exploration of individual subjectivity in its social context. The author of this volume demonstrates that the motivation for this exploration is a product of Chaucer's Christian beliefs and philosophical awareness. Chaucer's Dream Visions thus constitutes a major contribution to the debate concerning distinctions between medieval and early modern culture.
Michael St John, University of Leicester, UK
