Date of Award

Spring 8-1-2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Harriet E. Hudson

Second Advisor

Thomas J. Derrick

Third Advisor

Kathleen Kincade

Abstract

Geoffrey Chaucer's interest in social interactions in The Canterbury Tales is easy to see through his pilgrims' estate-based conflicts with each other. In addition to the frame narrative, the interest in social interaction is also apparent in the characters of the individual tales and as a reflection of the conflict between the individual pilgrims. Most of these social interactions embody what is called the camivalesque: free, open, contact between people due to the suspension of social hierarchies. Mikhail Bakhtin has described the camivalesque as characteristic of medieval thought. In medieval literature, the genre of the fabliau, short bawdy stories that revolve around some sort of a socially charged joke, is particularly camivalesque. This naturally camivalesque mind set of the Middle Ages also comes through in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, another frame narrative that possibly influenced Chaucer while writing The Canterbury Tales. Yet, there is a notable difference between the concentration of camivalesque themes in the Decameron 'sand The Canterbury Tales' frame narratives and tales due to the Decameron 's emphasis on proper social interaction between men and women in the nobility. There is a greater concentration of carnivalesque themes in The Canterbury Tales, reflecting Chaucer's interest in social interaction. Further, Decameronesque themes were combined in Chaucer's tales in such a way that direct influence is obscured. This interweaving of themes suggests that a fuller view of the Decameron as affecting Chaucer is in order rather than the traditional pairing of one Decameron analogue to one of The Canterbury Tales.

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