‘From pig to man and man to pig’:1 The 1381 Uprisings in Chaucer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
This chapter argues that the absence of authorial and narrative fixity in the The Nun's Priests Tale generates rhetorical comparisons between animals and humans which resonate very differently from those constructed in accounts of the 1381 uprisings in texts written by Chaucer's contemporaries. It explains that formal rhetorical schemes, themselves part of an order of discourse, are freighted with social commentary. It clarifies that the designation of the rebels as peasants and/or bondmen is characteristic of the way that commentators on the uprising attempted to put as much social distance as possible between themselves and those who took part in the revolt. It adds that accounts in the chronicles and poetic records, excluding Chaucer, seek to present the rebels in the worst possible light, and as far removed from any kind of civilized discourse as possible.
Keywords: The Nun's Priests Tale, Chaucer, rhetorical schemes, social commentary, social distance, representation, Gower, humans, animals
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