Chaucerian Aesthetics examines The Canterbury Tale and Troilus and Criseyde from both medieval and post-Kantian vantage points. These sometimes congruent, sometimes divergent perspectives illuminate both the immediate pleasure of encountering beauty and its haunting promise of intelligibility. Although aesthetic reflection has sometimes seemed out of sync with modern approaches to mind and language, Knapp defends its value in general and demonstrates its importance for the analysis of Chaucer s narrative art. Focusing on language games, persons, women, humor, and community, this book ponders what makes art beautiful.

Autorentext
PEGGY A. KNAPP is Professor of English, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.

Inhalt
Introduction: Why Aesthetics? Chaucerian Resoun Ymaginatyf Playing with Language Games Beautiful Persons The Beauty of Women The Aesthetics of Laughter Imagining Community