Literary Influence in Medieval Literature: Chaucer and the "Roman de la Rose"

Description

Literary influence has proved to be a phenomenon difficult to define or trace, particularly in medieval literature because of the habits of composition that produced it. This study seeks to expand our conception of literary influence so that it is less dependent on verbal borrowings. The only major study of Chaucer's use of the Roman de la Rose never proceeds beyond literal echoes. A broader notion of literary influence--especially closer attention to the borrowing of literary devices--would allow us to describe in a more sophisticated way how medieval poets read and used the works at their disposal. The study of literary reception has recently introduced the ideas of "lecture discontinue" (plundering for fragmented details) and "vue globale" (a comprehensive grasp of the whole) into the discussion of the ways that medieval writers used texts, and these ideas should help us get beyond surface echoes in tracing influence. Poets, naturally, can borrow only what they are capable of borrowing: in the Pelerinage de Vie Humaine, Deguileville borrowed heavily from the Roman, particularly from the courtly allegory of the first part, but his capacity to absorb the literary techniques of Jean de Meun's part of the Roman was much more limited. The traditional account of Chaucer's "French period" has discouraged us from seeing that Chaucer, even early in his career, understood Jean de Meun's ways of commenting on Guillaume de Lorris's courtly allegory. In the Book of the Duchess, Chaucer reworked the dits of Machaut in much the same way that Jean had treated Guillaume de Machaut. Jean de Meun also provided Chaucer with much of what is least tangible in and most essential to the Canterbury Tales, particularly in the Tales's tone and treatment of allegorical conventions. The influence of the Roman on the Squire's Tale, Merchant's Tale, Pardoner's Tale, and Nun's Priest's Tale shows Chaucer's capacity to separate the techniques of the Roman from its substance.