• 영어영문학
• /
• 제57권6호
• /
• pp.1173-1198
• /
• 2011

In this paper, I discuss Chaucer's Clerk's Tale by viewing the relationship between Walter and Griselda as that of a medieval translator and his translation. My major concern is how a medieval translation can serve power, more specifically the consolidation of power under particular historical circumstances. The motive and the process of Walter's creative translation of Griselda are closely examined to show that his translation, which includes a creation of a new Griselda as a pinnacle of wifely virtue of patience, is performed as a form of political propaganda, ultimately aimed at strengthening his governing power over his people and land. My discussion of the Clerk's Tale ends with the comparison of the two translators, Walter and the Clerk, the latter of whom is an example of an unsuccessful translator for his lack of creation in the translation.

• 영어영문학
• /
• 제53권2호
• /
• pp.281-306
• /
• 2007

M. M. Bakhtin's dialogic concept of multi-voiced discourse allows us to open up the text of The Clerk's Tale and to account for its radical heterogeneity. Once we recognize the multi-voiced character of The Clerk's Tale, then what was heretofore regarded as discontinuous or ignored can be seen as the clash of several different world-views. Such a conceptual framework gives an added depth and scope to such thematic subjects as sovereignty, the status of women, and rhetorical style. There are three different and antagonistic voices involved in the tale's narration. These voices project different viewpoints or world-views, and they consequently engage each other in a polemic debate. Their relationship with each other is discontinuous and dialectical rather than continuous and harmonious. The first voice is the Petrarchan voice of moral allegory, which is the voice of tradition, authority, and high seriousness. This voice of moral allegory regards the story of Griselda as an exemplum of spiritual constancy and virtuous suffering. The second voice is the Clerkly voice of pathos based on human experience and feeling. This voice is defined by the Clerk's asides and apostrophes interspersed in the narrative proper, which function to engage the Petrarchan voice in a polemical debate. The third voice is the voice of parody, nominally identified with Chaucer the poet, which is located in the second ending, including Envoy. Whereas the other two voices are earnest and serious, the voice of parody is irrelevant, playful and antagonistic to both the Petrarchan voice of moral allegory and the Clerkly voice of secular humility.