Chaucer's "matere/mater/ia": constructing social response through authority in The house of fame and character in Troilus and Criseyde

Abstract

This thesis compares Chaucer’s production of the image of himself as author in The House of Fame to his production of characters in Troilus and Criseyde. In doing so, this thesis brings to the forefront an image of Chaucer as an author concerned with both the manner in which his work would be received in posterity as well as the manner in which he would be received through his work. It is my contention that Chaucer goes to great efforts to embed a complex and defined model of textual authority that is able both to resist and withstand orthodox cultural authority as a guarantor of meaning in his time and times to come. This model, which Chaucer terms his “matere,” is upheld, supported, and based in the figures in and of the texts, characters and author.