초서의 모국어 문학관, 텍스트, 명성명성의 전당의 경우

Abstract

Geoffrey Chaucer's usual appellation, "a maker of the English language and its poetry," does not mean that no writer before him had ever written literary works in English. Rather, it suggests that it was Chaucer who invested English poetry with authority as well as "originality." His achievements are especially striking when we consider the cultural circumstances in which he wrote. Certainly, he could have chosen French or Latin for his writing rather than English by following the general trend of elite poetry in fourteenth century England, and in fact, the influence of the Old French love-vision took a new shape in his first long poem, the Book of Duchess. How then did Chaucer begin to create his characteristic English poetry, which marked the beginning of a recognizable tradition of English poetry, so that he could deserve such a privileged title? Despite the continuing French influence and its incomplete ending, the House of Fame provides significant clues to answer this question since it helps us see what kind of poetry an immature poet Chaucer could create under the influence of strong foreign inheritance. Dante Alighieri's influence, in particular, was crucial in that he provided Chaucer with a vision of the potential for vernacular poetry and poetic innovation that made Chaucer's poetry different from not only that of his English precursors but also that of the great poets of the Continental tradition. In the House of Fame, Chaucer's struggle with the nonstandard forms of English and the lack of its literary tradition demonstrates how he desired to build his own authority and fame with the newly embarking Chaucerian poetics that reached its acme in the Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde.