Textual Subjectivity: The Encoding of Subjectivity in Medieval Narratives and Lyrics by A. C. Spearing

Abstract

MLR, 102.3, 2007 835 in tale-telling on the evidence of 'grys' and 'gold' inhis array (pp. I I9-20, I28-29). The fur-edging to his sleeves is a sign of social status asmuch as of ostentation, for the abuse is a commonplace matter (pp. I 19-24). With the Friar there is amarked descent inboth the social and moral orders. The double worsted is a good ifnot fine material but even so at odds with the ideal of evangelical poverty (pp. 145-48). Worse still is theuniquely significant detail of the tippet transformed into a receptacle for a pedlar's wares (pp. I3 5-44). The criticism of the Friar is generalized in so far as no detail of his clothing identifieshim with a particular order of friars (pp. I38-39). The Physician is 'the most lavishly dressed' (p.2 I9) of thepilgrims inhis 'sangwyn and [. . .]pers' (A 439) and silk linings of taffetaand sendal. These are indispensable asmarks ofworldly success and guarantees of futurebusiness (pp. 220, 225). Further down the social and moral scale is thatunamiable pair, Summoner and Pardoner, the one grotesque with garland and cake-buckler (pp. 25 I-55), theother odious with his vernicle, prominently and inappropriately displayed on his unhooded head as a badge of faithand of thepilgrimage toRome (pp. 230-37). The Pardoner's religious status (whether that of friaror minor orders) is impossible to discover from his outward appearance (pp. 243-47). How different from the Parson, whose staff is a sufficient indication in itselfof the lifeof a good shepherd (pp. 26i-62). The least convincing chapter is thaton theClerk ofOxenford, an intellectual novice of twenty-onewhose collection of twentybooks is 'excessive' (p. I93) and whose love ofAristotle a sign of intellectual narrowness (p. I9 I).On this analysis the threadbare 'courtepy' (A 290) is tobe taken as a sign ofworldly pride and curiosity (pp. I84-89) rather than of humble devotion to learning (pp. I75-77). This book iswritten in a clear style, although the pressure of an argument some times leads to infelicities such as 'the speculative, escalating-as-rumors-do types of critical comments' (p.29). There isa case forseemliness of style aswell as forpropriety of dress. TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN GERALDMORGAN Textual Subjectivity: The Encoding ofSubjectivity in Medieval Narratives and Lyrics. By A. C. SPEARING. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005. Viii+ 273 pp. ?50; $95. ISBN 978-0-I9-8I8724-0. Textual Subjectivity does not deal with the thoughts and emotions of individuals in literary texts,but with subjectivity elsewhere in such writing. So it isnot concerned with Troilus's feelings forCriseyde, or theWife of Bath's views on husbands. In stead, we learn of elusive narrators (of Troilus, Pearl, the Man ofLaw's Tale), forms of love-lyric,verse-letters, and so on. It has seven chapters. The firstis inpart theo retical, surveying the ideas ofBakhtin, Banfield, Barthes, Derridas, Fludernik, Lacan, and others, which it then uses in an account of thenarrators inLa3amon's Brut and Mannyng's Chronicle. Chapters 2-5 discuss narrators inKing Horn and Havelok; Troilus and Criseyde; theMan ofLaw's Tale; and Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight, Cleanness, Patience, and Pearl. The book's lastpart concerns lyric.Chapter 6 analyses Chaucer's Complaint unto Pity, and love poems from the Findern Manuscript and Humfrey Newton's commonplace book; Chapter 7 examines epistolary poems by Ovid (Heroides) and Charles ofOrleans, plus twoEnglish poems ofCharles's time. The result is criticism of the highest order, both subtle and impressive. For forty years Tony Spearing has been among themost perceptive critics ofMiddle Eng lish literature.Yet Textual Subjectivity goes further than his previous books in its acknowledgement thatpostmodernism exists, even thoughmany pretend itdoes not. Spearing's intelligence shows how much can be gleaned from it.He performs a 836 Reviews brilliant act of dissolution on concepts of author, narrator, and narrative, which he persuasively shows asmore evasive and flickeringentities thanmost ofus imagine.He also gives a sharp call toorder on 'narrator abuse'. This is an intellectual vice, com mon in theUSA, which allows interpretations of teller and tale that are 'limited only by the powers of human fantasy' (p. I05), and which enables critics of...