Chaucer's "The House Of Fame": The Cultural Nature Of Fame

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

of their audience. Chaucer, while
neither totally praising the written nor the oral, reveals how essentially
the written word is far more likely to become eternal as opposed to the
oral. The relative "fame" of any work is dependent on many factors. Many
traditional and classical ideas result in the formation of the English
canon, yet as Chaucer indicates, the "fame" of these works can easily
become annihilated. The arrival of new readers with different ideals and
thereby changing tradition, can reject classical or "canonical" work and
their "fame" will melt into nothingness.
Most stories, histories and legends that emerge from oral heroic
poetry are to herald the achievement of the powerful and wealthy so that
their histories will not fade from the memories of the population. The
stories of Beowolf are a clear example of this, as within these stories,
(whether embellished or no), Beowolf's fame and legend reaches the modern
reader hundreds of years later. Clearly, Beowolf is ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

plays on all these meanings and its implications, yet his
ideas are clouded and obscured so it is difficult to define whether his
arguments are mocking, condemning or celebrating. J. Stephen agrees with
Shelia Delany's argument in her book, The House of Fame: The Poetics of
Skeptical Fidelism and believes that The House of Fame is indeed "a
sceptical poem". However, Russell is rather extreme in his view, believing
that Chaucer is "writing to deconstruct the tyranny of the written word".
It is difficult to agree with this view, and although there are elements to
suggest this may be the case, one would tend to agree with Delany's
argument, that Chaucer "preferred to transcend the choice ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: