Time mechanics: The modern Geoffrey Chaucer and the medieval Jack Spicer

Abstract

Jack Spicer was an important mid-twentieth-century poet, part of the ‘Berkeley Renaissance’ during the 1950s. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, completing coursework for a PhD in Old English and Old Norse, specializing in linguistics and philology, largely under Arthur Brodeur. His mature poetics featured ideas about ‘dictation’ and ‘serial poetry,’ with works that respond to medieval themes and languages. A closer look at Spicer’s handling of medieval sources – beginning with a previously unpublished short story and proceeding to an early play, both of which comically engage with Chaucer – shows how, for Spicer, tradition must be reimagined in contemporary language, as well as being an entity that itself continues to find new life through a poet’s words. Spicer’s process in turn illuminates Chaucer’s own approach to working with and updating source material, most notably in Troilus and Criseyde.