Writers as readers: The scribes of Chaucer's “Troilus and Criseyde”
Abstract
Medieval scribes were the first readers of the texts they copied, and the manuscripts they produced incorporate their “reading” of the work. Using G. Thomas Tanselle's A Rationale of Textual Criticism , Jerome J. McGann's theory of the “social text,” and Louise Rosenblatt's classification of ways of reading, I approach the manuscripts of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde in order to discover patterns in scribal response. The first chapter sketches the medieval system of text production, drawing distinctions from the modern process, and provides a test-case for the application of my theories. Subsequent chapters examine collations of all the manuscripts of Troilus and Criseyde, tracing the development of characters in the hands of the scribes.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Astell, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Literature|Middle Ages|British and Irish literature
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