Description
Book SynopsisThe movement of the pilgrims in the Tales explored both practically and metaphorically, showing it to be an expression of identity. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by pilgrims en route to Canterbury; but how does their movement shape the world around them, and how are they shaped by their world? This volume seeks to answer these questions by exploring expressions of mobility in Chaucer's frame narrative and tales. Combining the theoretical and historical methods of literary analysis with the interpretive tools of cultural geography and ecocriticism, it argues that movement is the medium through which identity is performed in The Canterbury Tales. This unique interdisciplinary approach shows how physical and ideological mobilities shape and are shaped by geographical, ecological, sociopolitical, and gendered identities. As human and more-than-human bodies cross borders and dissolve boundaries, they contribute to a fluid, permeable, and hybrid world that challenges traditional perceptions of boundedness, security, and fixity. By examining this kinesis alongside contexts including medieval bridge building, economics, and biology, this book reveals a rich exchange between word and world. In the end, The Canterbury Tales emerges as an amalgam of lived experience and the poetic imagination that both chronicles and constructs a world in the process of becoming.
Trade ReviewWright elegantly brings together this wide-ranging and insightful account of mobility and identity, which will be of interest beyond the field of Chaucer studies and Middle English for its valuable discussions of the way in which mobility mediates our views and experiences of the world around us. -- MEDIUM AEVUM
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Moving across, in, and as the World Chapter One: Economic Mobilities in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales Chapter Two: Building Bridges to Canterbury Chapter Three: Rocking the Cradle and Quiting the Knight Chapter Four: "Translating" Female Bodies and (En)Gendering Mobility Conclusion: Mobilizing Medieval and Modern Identities Bibliography
