Form and Social Statement in Confessio Amantis and The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

Strohm applies Marxist concept of mediation (popularized by Raymond Williams) to Gower and Chaucer. Mediation is the process by which a social can be reconceived or restated, to appear in a work of art in a new and potentially more tractable guise (17). The problematic social reality in late fourteenth century is increasing challenges to various social, political, and religious hierarchies. Strohm gives as examples 1376 Good Parliament, Merciless Parliament of 1386-89, and beginning of Richard II’s despotism in 1397. In response to such factionalism, Gower in CA prologue emphasizes that his poetry aims to overcome disorder and division and will reconcile competing classes as did Arion (27). Gower creates unity by showing connections between love and kingly self-governance and through teaching of Genius we learn that principal characteristic of viciousness in Confessio is a tendency to thrust oneself into or overturn rightful order of things – to alter one’s station, to supplant others, to disrupt sanctioned relationships (29). Gower further mediates political factionalism by creating an aesthetic structure which subordinates individual tales to a larger vision and framework. By contrast, Chaucer’s approach in CT is through juxtaposition of voices, perspectives, genres (33). Finally, Strohm relates these aesthetic choices to authors' biographies. Gower’s financial and political independence made him more likely to promote traditional hierarchies. Chaucer was more subject to factionalism and thus saw as comprised of a multiplicity of competing interests (39). [CvD]