Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W2011806601> ?p ?o ?g. }
- W2011806601 endingPage "46" @default.
- W2011806601 startingPage "26" @default.
- W2011806601 abstract "Chaucer and the Gift (If There Is Any) Britton J. Harwood If Chaucer meant the two narratives in the fifth fragment of the Canterbury Tales to play against each other, one perhaps interesting way they do so is to make a problem of the gift.1 The Squire's Tale-Franklin's Tale sequence not only ends, of course, with a question that seems to be about generosity (Which was the mooste fre, as thynketh yow?); it begins with magnificent gifts—the feast given by Genghis Khan (Cambyuskan) on his birthday and the four magic objects sent him by another king.2 Over the course of the fragment, the reader must not so much, I think, sort out Chaucer's sense of what it is to be 'fre' 3 as follow Chaucer's sorting it out. Jacques Derrida has come close to putting the gift under erasure (the gift, if there is any [s'il y en a]). In his [End Page 26] own time and way, Chaucer, I am proposing, will eventually try to erase unproductive expenditure—what Georges Bataille called dépense—by safely framing and containing it by economy and exchange.4 Gift-giving or its possibility arises against the contrasting background that a tale-telling contest has set for it, economy and exchange, outlays for agreed-upon returns. At a certain point in commerce, buyer and seller agree upon a pretium for something that becomes a commodity at that point. The Franklin, for example, in essence readies the commodification of his son by offering to exchange him and twenty pound worth lond with anyone who can find him a young man of greater discrecioun (V.682-86). After the Host asks the pilgrims each to agree to tell four tales, the pilgrims enter into exchange by hearing a tale and thus incurring a determinate obligation. The Host asks them to promise (I.808-9), and this tretee secures a return for an outlay, like the agreement between Aurelius and the Orleans maister (V.1219) or the one in the Shipman's Tale, where the monk will enjoy the wife all night for a hundred franks.5 Erotic outlays can be economized even when money is not involved. So the falcon in the Squire's Tale takes the tercel's herte in chaunge of [hers] for ay, having yeven hym my trewe herte as free / As he swoor he yaf his herte to me (V.535, 541-42). Consequently, when the male says he must leave for a while, their sorrows, seeming to mirror each other, form a similarly closed circle (V.584-87). The female asks that their conduct also reflect this mutuality: Beth swich as I to yow have been and shal (V.598). Promises of reciprocal conduct, in this case obedience, are swapped in the Franklin's Tale—the agreement being a wys accord, like what makes commerce commerce, with the calculation of prosperitee on either side (V.791, 799).6 When the Squire's turn comes to pay the tale that he owes, he begins with what nevertheless threatens to rupture the circle of exchange—Genghis Khan in his utter self-sufficiency: Hym lakked noght that [End Page 27] longeth to a kyng (V.16). Even with the Franklin's reserve of plump partridges in their cages and breams and pikes in their ponds, he is a mere shadow of this prince, who is closer to Apollo, the god and governour giving to every thing his tyme and his seson (V.1031, 1034).7 The husband is similarly unconditioned in Boccaccio's Filocolo, the main source of the Franklin's Tale. The vow his wife has made to Tarolfo, her would-be lover, is judged by Fiammetta the queen to be invalid; thus, the husband's sacrifice of his honor by sending his wife unchastely to Tarolfo appears utterly gratuitous.8 Genghis's diademe (V.43, 60) flows out into a centrifugal flood of munificence and renown, exhaustive, independent, a circle breaking the circle of giving and taking—the crown of an unmoved mover (of his corage as any centre stable [V.22]). Is not the gift, Derrida asks, also that which interrupts..." @default.
- W2011806601 created "2016-06-24" @default.
- W2011806601 creator A5059288572 @default.
- W2011806601 date "2006-01-01" @default.
- W2011806601 modified "2023-10-17" @default.
- W2011806601 title "Chaucer and the Gift (If There Is Any)" @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1495074932 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1497293320 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1557661352 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1592869560 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1964068375 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1973864416 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1983926848 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1986064678 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1986469675 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1990424289 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1991623608 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W1996705066 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2002203800 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2019680733 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2022395368 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2023188142 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2047761461 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2050287296 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2067488672 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2070272706 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2070488390 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2074000172 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2077442023 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2079822061 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2095505391 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2122848636 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2138888048 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2162255390 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2165651832 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2315071164 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2318777638 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2327845627 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2331389549 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2333163048 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2497048078 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W257348684 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2586329838 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2782390544 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2795963539 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2796211066 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2799355630 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2800509218 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2803976412 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W354501917 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W600412726 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W613199480 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W622855333 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W632466893 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W652328529 @default.
- W2011806601 cites W2473247760 @default.
- W2011806601 doi "https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2006.0001" @default.
- W2011806601 hasPublicationYear "2006" @default.
- W2011806601 type Work @default.
- W2011806601 sameAs 2011806601 @default.
- W2011806601 citedByCount "6" @default.
- W2011806601 countsByYear W20118066012012 @default.
- W2011806601 countsByYear W20118066012016 @default.
- W2011806601 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
- W2011806601 hasAuthorship W2011806601A5059288572 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C121332964 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C124952713 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C136264566 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C162324750 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C199033989 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C27206212 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C2777582232 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C2777704519 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C2779861158 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C2780907072 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C41895202 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C57481673 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C62520636 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConcept C95457728 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C121332964 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C124952713 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C136264566 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C138885662 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C142362112 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C162324750 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C199033989 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C27206212 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C2777582232 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C2777704519 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C2779861158 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C2780907072 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C41895202 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C57481673 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C62520636 @default.
- W2011806601 hasConceptScore W2011806601C95457728 @default.
- W2011806601 hasIssue "1" @default.