Mobility and Identity in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

The movement of the pilgrims in the Tales explored both practically and metaphorically, showing it to be an expression of identity. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by pilgrims en route to Canterbury; but how does their movement shape the world around them, and how are they shaped by their world? This volume seeks to answer these questions by exploring expressions of mobility in Chaucer's frame narrative and tales. Combining the theoretical and historical methods of literary analysis with the interpretive tools of cultural geography and ecocriticism, it argues that movement is the medium through which identity is performed in The Canterbury Tales. This unique interdisciplinary approach shows how physical and ideological mobilities shape and are shaped by geographical, ecological, sociopolitical, and gendered identities. As human and more-than-human bodies cross borders and dissolve boundaries, they contribute to a fluid, permeable, and hybrid world that challenges traditional perceptions of boundedness, security, and fixity. By examining this kinesis alongside contexts including medieval bridge building, economics, and biology, this book reveals a rich exchange between word and world. In the end, The Canterbury Tales emerges as an amalgam of lived experience and the poetic imagination that both chronicles and constructs a world in the process of becoming.

Author:

Sarah Breckenridge Wright

Publisher:

D.S. Brewer

Publication Date:

March 20, 2020

Number of pages:

218 pages

Language:

English

Binding:

Hardcover

ISBN-10:

1843845520

ISBN-13:

9781843845522