Essays on Chaucerian Irony / / Earle Birney; ed. by Beryl Rowland.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Birney, Earle,
• MitwirkendeR: Rowland, Beryl,
• HerausgeberIn: Rowland, Beryl,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©1985
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.)

These essays, written between 1937 and 1960, have remained classics of their kind. They include important discussions on irony—its native traditions and its occurrence in early English literature, an account of critics’ appreciation of Chaucerian irony prior to this century, and a detailed examination of four of the Canterbury Tales. The illuminating analysis of the complex use of various kinds of irony in the Miller’s Tale, the Friar’s Tale, the Summoner’s Tale, and the Manciple’s Tale emphasizes aspects of Chaucer’s art that are very acceptable to contemporary. As a result, these essays lead today’s reader towards a fuller understanding of Chaucer’s achievement.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Seven Kinds of Irony -- The Two Worlds of Geoffrey Chaucer -- English Irony before Chaucer -- Is Chaucer's Irony a Modern Discovery? -- The Beginnings of Chaucer's Irony -- The Inhibited and the Uninhibited: Ironic Structure in the Miller's Tale -- 'After his Ymage': The Central Ironies of the Friar's Tale -- Structural Irony within the Summoner's Tale -- Chaucer's 'Gentil' Manciple and his 'Gentil' Tale