Date of Award
Spring 5-2016
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
English
Department
English
Major Professor
Kevin Marti
Second Advisor
Catherine Loomis
Third Advisor
Robert Shenk
Abstract
Sergei Eisenstein’s theory of collision montage can be applied to The Canterbury Tales because Chaucer’s writing is highly visual and often unconventional. This study analyzes several portraits and tales to demonstrate Chaucer’s literary collision montage technique. The opening lines of the General Prologue present the juxtaposition of the tripartite plant and humans to suggest commoners’ social immobility. The interruption of the Miller’s Tale clashes with the Knight’s to suggest the possibility of social mobility and to challenge traditional patriarchy. The latter half of the narrator’s description in the Wife of Bath’s portrait indicates a sexualized subtext through the juxtaposition of neutral images that undercuts her wealthy appearance. Chaucer’s literary collision montage technique is used to suggest the possibility of social mobility, and to reflect the disruption of the social hierarchy in late fourteenth-century England.
Recommended Citation
Simmons, Brandon, "Chaucer's Collision Montage" (2016). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2189.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2189
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.