Chaucer and his English Contemporaries

Modern ways of presenting Chaucer have often made his work seem 'normal' so that The Canterbury Tales and its much-studied General Prologue are seen as archetypes of narrative and prologue. Tony Davenport argues that study of Chaucer's major work alongside contemporary English poems reveals the odd and extreme aspects of Chaucer's writing as well as the daring and experimental qualities in his work. The focus of the book is on strategies of narrative and discourse, but also includes discussion of other much-studied Middle English poems.

Preface.- Abbreviations.- INTRODUCTION: PROLOGUE AND TALE.- PROLOGUES.- Medieval Prologues.- Gower, Langland and Chaucer's General Prologue.- Prologues in The Canterbury Tales.- TALES.- Ideas of Narrative.- Tales and Preachers.- Fabliau, Confession, Satire.- ROMANCES.- Romance as a Medieval Genre.- The Case of Thomas Chester.- English Romances.- Chaucer and Romance.- CHAUCER, GOWER AND THE GAWAIN-POET.- Emare and the Tale of Constance.- The Tale of Florent and The Wife of Bath's Tale.- Chaucer and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.- FORMS OF NARRATIVE.- Frameworks.- Well-made Narrative.- Wayward Narrative.- THE GOOD WAY.- Notes.- Bibilography.- Index.