E. Talbot Donaldson, "Chaucer the Pilgrim"

E. Talbot Donaldson, "Chaucer the Pilgrim"

Donaldson, E. Talbot. "Chaucer the Pilgrim." The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue, 2005, pp 503-551.

Donaldson examines the distinction between Chaucer the civil servant, poet, and "pilgrim" or narrator of the tale, arguing that while they cohabitate the same body, they are not necessarily the same man. He also dismisses previous criticisms claiming that Chaucer was as earnest or as reporter-like as a face-value reading of the text might lead one to believe. Using examples from both the general and individual prologues, he argues that Chaucer's persona as the fortune-affectionate, glamour-bedazzled "Fat Geoff" character is a device used to simultaneously entertain, criticize and please his upper-class audience, serving the needs of Chaucer the man and the aims of Chaucer the poet; for this reason, it might not always to be possible to determine whether we are to view the world as it ought to be or, like "his fictional representative... to go on affirming affectionately what is."

Liz Soehngen