The gentil example : thematic parallels in Froissart's Chroniques and Chaucer's Franklin's tale

View/ Open
Date
2007-09-17Author
Mulligan, Maureen Therese
Type
ThesisDegree Level
MastersMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
My project is founded on an inter-genre, comparative approach between Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale from the Canterbury collection, and Jean Froissart’s Chroniques, the innovative and epic account of French history in the thirteenth century. I have adopted a method of thematic comparison between the two in an effort to illuminate parallels of example and authorial intent in the works of these almost exactly contemporaneous authors. My thesis therefore becomes a selective examination of the ethical functions of their literature.Twentieth century scholarship focusing on the similarities between Geoffrey Chaucer and Jean Froissart has left little doubt that the two shared numerous sources and analogues in selections of their poetry, were at least aware of each other personally, and were born into similar social backgrounds. What remains to be done, and what has received little critical attention in the decades since serious work began on the similarities between them, is a study of the ideological values that Chaucer and Froissart shared specifically evidenced in their writing. The ideas they wanted to promote, the contemporary moral and social debates they engaged in, are equally as fascinating as the similarities in their love poetry. I intend to go beyond the biographical and source study that has dominated discussion on Chaucer and Froissart and embark on a project of tracing thematic parallels in two of their works, specifically focusing on the issue that I find most obvious between them: the desire to create and record literary discussions of ethical behaviour.
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)Department
EnglishProgram
EnglishSupervisor
Parkinson, David J.Committee
Stephanson, Raymond A.; Roy, Wendy; Liu, Yin; Bilson, Beth; Vargo, LisaCopyright Date
September 2007Subject
authority
medieval
ethical
gentilesse
chivalry
Froissart
Chaucer