Chaucer on Interpretation

Chaucer on Interpretation enters the current dialogue about whether modern literary theory can illuminate medieval works. Dr Fester argues that the insights of modern phenomenological hermeneutics can enrich our understanding of Chaucer and shows that interpretation is one of the central concerns of his poems. The book demonstrates that the hermeneutical circle is a model for the interdependent relationship between self and other, between characters, between the poet and his literary sources and between a poem and its readers. Ferster shows how Chaucer examines different aspects and consequences of the hermeneutical circle and its implications for personal identity, political power and literary meaning. Taking interpretation as a theme, she gives readings of the Knight's Tale, the Parliament of Fowls, the Clerk's Tale, the Wife of Bath and the narrative frame of the Canterbury Tales.

This important book is a study of Chaucer's poetry in the light of the modern theory of interpretation, or hermeneutics. Drawing upon the work of philosophers Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, the author shows how the hermeneutic circle is a helpful description of the dialectic between self and other in Chaucer's poems. In the author's view, Chaucer's work reveals the poet's self-consciousness about how texts embody interpretations of the world that invite further interpretations from readers - all of which interpretations are inevitably subjective, partial, and manipulative. This perspective enables the author to examine the way Chaucer's characters interpret not only written texts, but each other and the world as texts. The author also illuminates the relationship between the poet and his literary sources, and between the reader and the poem. Individual chapters focus on The Knigbt's Tale, The Book of the Ducbess, The Parliament of Fowls, The Clerk's Tale, The Wife of Bath, and the narrative frame of The Canterbury Tales. By means of close textual analysis, each chapter shows how Chaucer examines a different aspect or consequence of the hermeneutical circle, and what implications result for personal identity, relationships, literary meaning and power.