Introduction
Introduction
This introductory chapter situates the book partly as a consolidation of gender studies in Chaucer, proposing that gender questions in Chaucer are frequently also moral questions and that his poetry displays profound interest in dramas of personal morality. It is argued that there is scope for renewed investigation of his poetry in the context of compendia of ethical teachings — often in the vernacular — endemic in the Middle Ages. His interest in ideals inherited from Seneca proves to be particularly creative. He does not aspire, like Dante, to reconcile Christian morality with antique ethics. Rather, he relishes the gaps and grey areas which enable him to generate far-reaching questions about the behaviour of women and men in stressful situations.
Keywords: antique ethics, behaviour, compendia, Christian morality, Seneca, Dante, gender
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
