Lies, slander, and obscenity in Medieval English narrative : pastoral rhetoric and the deviant speaker
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Lies, slander, and obscenity in Medieval English narrative : pastoral rhetoric and the deviant speaker
（Cambridge studies in medieval literature, 31）
Cambridge University Press, 1997
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-249) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Drawing on manuscript sources, this book examines how the medieval clergy developed the authority and persuasive force to attempt to govern the day-to-day speech of Western Christians. It shows how attempts were made to portray some political, social and private speech as deviant and destructive, labelling it lying, slander, blasphemy and other Sins of the Tongue. It explores, for the first time, how Chaucer, Langland, Gower and the 'Patience' poet use the different strains of this pastoral discourse not only to expose the destructive power of speech in political and social life but also to judge clerical claims to authority and efficacy in formulating and applying codes of speech.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The pastoral movement and deviant speech: major texts
- 2. The lies of the Fall, the tongues of Pentecost: typing and converting the deviant speaker
- 3. Exemplifying deviant speech: murmur in Patience
- 4. Confessing the deviant speaker: verbal deception in the Confessio Amantis
- 5. Reforming deviant social practices: turpiloquium/scurrilitas in the B Version of Piers Plowman
- 6. Restraining the deviant speaker: Chaucer's Manciple and Parson
- Bibliography
- Index.
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