Literary character : the human figure in early English writing

Resource Information

The work Literary character : the human figure in early English writing represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of San Diego Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Literary character : the human figure in early English writing

Title remainder

the human figure in early English writing

Statement of responsibility

Elizabeth Fowler

Creator

• Fowler, Elizabeth, 1958-

Author

• Fowler, Elizabeth, 1958-

Subject

• Characters and characteristics in literature
• Chaucer, Geoffrey
• Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400
• Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400 -- Characters
• Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400 -- Political and social views
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Electronic books
• Engels
• Characters and characteristics
• English literature -- Early modern
• English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
• English literature -- Middle English
• English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism
• Faerie queene
• History
• Human beings in literature
• Human beings in literature
• LITERARY CRITICISM -- Medieval
• Langland, William
• Letterkunde
• Literarische Gestalt
• Literatur
• Literature and society
• Literature and society -- England -- History -- 16th century
• Literature and society -- England -- History -- To 1500
• Mittelenglisch
• Pardoner's tale
• Personages
• Piers Plowman
• Political and social views
• Skelton, John
• Spenser, Edmund
• Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599
• Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Characters
• Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Political and social views
• To 1700
• Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng
• England
• Characters and characteristics in literature

Genre

• History
• Electronic books
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

Summary

• "Chaucer introduces the characters of the Knight and the Prioress in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. Beginning with these familiar figures, Elizabeth Fowler develops a new method of analyzing literary character. She argues that words generate human figures in our reading minds by reference to paradigmatic cultural models of the person. These models - such as the pilgrim, the conqueror, the maid, the narrator - originate in a variety of cultural spheres. A concept Fowler terms the "social person" is the key to understanding both the literary details of specific characterizations and their indebtedness to history and culture."
• "Drawing on central texts of medieval and early modern England, Fowler demonstrates that literary characters are created by assembling social persons from throughout culture. Her perspective allows her to offer strikingly original readings of works by Chaucer, Langland, Skelton, and Spenser, and to reformulate and resolve several classic interpretive problems. In so doing, she reframes accepted notions of the process and the consequences of reading." "Developing insights from law, theology, economic thought, and political philosophy, Fowler's book replaces the traditional view of characters as autonomous individuals with an interpretive approach in which each character is seen as a battle of many archetypes."
• "According to Fowler, the social person provides the template that enables authors to portray, and readers to recognize, the highly complex human figures that literature requires."--Jacket

Member of

• Book collections on Project MUSE

Cataloging source

JSTOR

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

• dictionaries
• bibliography