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Chaucer And The Politics Of Penance, Karl G Wilcox
Chaucer And The Politics Of Penance, Karl G Wilcox
UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations
Chaucer and the Politics of Penance argues for a Chaucerian fusion of penitential values with Wycliffite ideals in the 1390s. The historical setting for this study is the political crisis of 1388 and the political agenda that Richard II employs in the 1390s in an attempt to reassert an image of royal legitimacy and power. The case is made that Chaucer critiques Ricardian autocracy by employing penitential discourse as a possible corrective to Richard's exemplarism or use of positive exempla to suppress political dissent. Chaucer is joined in this emphasis on the politics of penance by the Carmelite Richard Maidstone …