Chaucer''s Gifts - Exchange and Value in the Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales--the most celebrated literary work of medieval England--portrays the culture of the late Middle Ages as a deeply commercial environment, replete with commodities and dominated by market relationships. However, the market is not the only mode of exchange in Chaucer's world, or in his poem.

In Chaucer's Gifts, Robert Epstein reveals the complex gift economy at work in the Tales. To explain the network of exchanges and obligations found in the Canterbury Tales, Epstein applies recent advances in gift theory and introduces economic anthropology to medieval literary criticism. He makes the case that the world of the Canterbury Tales harbors deep commitments to reciprocity and obligation that are at odds with a purely commercial culture. Drawing on critiques from some of the most influential anthropologists and theorists, such as Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, and Marilyn Strathern, Epstein shows that the market and commercial relations are not natural, eternal, or inevitable--an essential lesson if we are to understand Chaucer's world--or our own.

About the author

Robert Epstein is associate professor of English at Fairfield University, in Connecticut.

Summary

Chaucer’s Gifts applies the theoretical approaches of economic anthropology to the Canterbury Tales, to show that in Chaucer’s world the exchange of gifts is as prevalent as the purchase of commodities, and that social relations are as important as money and the market.

Product details

• Authors: Robert Epstein, Epstein Robert
• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.04.2018
• EAN: 9781786831699
• ISBN: 978-1-78683-169-9
• No. of pages: 256
• Series: New Century Chaucer; New Century Chaucer
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Englisch, Literaturwissenschaft: Lyrik und Dichter, English, Canterbury, LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval, Gifts, tales, Value, Exchange, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Literary studies: poetry and poets, Chaucer's