Father Chaucer and the Critics: The Problems of Chaucerian Biography in the Twenty-First Century (A Roundtable)

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Dept. of English, Temple Univ.

Organizer Name

Sarah Baechle; Carissa M. Harris

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Mississippi; Temple Univ.

Presider Name

Carissa M. Harris

Paper Title 1

Father Chaucer and the Apologists: One Hundred and Forty-Eight Years of Writing about Cecily Chaumpaigne

Presenter 1 Name

Sarah Baechle

Paper Title 2

Chaucer versus Cecily: Extending Himpathy, Replicating Overfamiliarity

Presenter 2 Name

Anna Fore Waymack

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Cornell Univ.

Paper Title 3

Toxic Masculinity and the License of Obscenity in Chaucer Biography

Presenter 3 Name

Mary C. Flannery

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Oxford

Paper Title 4

Teaching Chaucer in the Age of Trump: Exploiting Critical History

Presenter 4 Name

Karen A. Winstead

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Ohio State Univ.

Paper Title 5

Horrendous Poetry, the Squire, and Chaucer the Poet

Presenter 5 Name

Soojung Choe

Presenter 5 Affiliation

Graduate Center, CUNY

Paper Title 6

Father Chaucer and the Shadow of Antisemitism

Presenter 6 Name

Hannah R. Johnson

Presenter 6 Affiliation

Univ. of Pittsburgh

Start Date

9-5-2019 10:00 AM

Session Location

Bernhard 158

Description

This roundtable seeks to interrogate the ways in which current scholarship responds to ethical difficulties in Chaucer’s life records and in his literature. The six brief talks investigate the areas in which Chaucer scholarship continues to fear to (metaphorically) tread. In exploring Chaucerian scholarship’s discomfort with the Chaumpaigne release and the Prioress’ Tale’s antisemitism, this panel extends the work of scholars like Susan Morrison, Heather Blurton, and Hannah Johnson. We seek to respond to and advance their efforts to suggest new interventions in Chaucer criticism that accommodate a more complex picture of the poet and his work. Carissa M. Harris