Full text loading...
The Roman de la Rose and Deguileville’s Pèlerinages-trilogy have often been invoked as possible sources for Piers Plowman, yet their deep and pervasive impact on Langland largely remains to be explored. Rather than being mere sources or quarries for episodes, characters, and topoi, these slippery and capacious allegorical poems define the very space within which Piers Plowman can materialize, shaping the major themes, scope, and method of Langland’s own allegorical poetics. Their influence on Langland’s choice of a first-person narrative voice to recount his dream vision is particularly profound: rather than simply providing Langland with an influential authorial model to be emulated, they introduce a first-person subject produced-yet-bounded by fluctuating and unstable textuality. This tradition sustains Langland’s constant questioning of his poetic craft, and his protracted process of revision.
Article metrics loading...
Full text loading...