Li, Chi-fang Sophia (2008) Thomas Dekker and Chaucerian re-imaginings. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Research output not available from this repository.

Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This study aims to offer a new literary biography of Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632) and demonstrates the ways in which he refashions his principal source, Geoffrey Chaucer. The first chapter considers Dekker in both literary and theatre histories, situating him amongst his collaborators: Anthony Munday, Henry Chettle, Michael Drayton, Thomas Middleton, and John Webster. This chapter also aims to re-evaluate Dekker’s achievement in history, starting from Dekker’s presence in Henslowe’s Diary, his ‘part’ in the War of the Theatres, his theatre writing, followed by his observations of London written during the plague years, his imprisonment, and his posthumous historical reception. The second chapter investigates how Dekker uses Chaucer, whose ‘book’, I argue, is a common theatrical source book that offers the playwrights quick access to stories and plots. To provide evidence of Dekker’s readership of Chaucer, I trace the early modern editions of Chaucer available in Dekker’s time and survey Dekker’s reading of Chaucer from his early career to his late years.
The final three chapters concentrate on Dekker’s uniquely creative refashioning of Chaucer in theatrical terms. Chapter Three examines how Dekker turns Chaucer’s serious Clerk’s Tale, a ‘text of loss’, into a comic parody, re-titled as The Pleasant Comedy of Patient Grissil. Chapter Four investigates Chaucer’s legacy of the festive and the carnival, whose ideas of ‘game’ and ‘play’ in The Canterbury Tales directly influence Dekker’s Westward Ho and Northward Ho, wherein I call the Ho plays Dekker’s ‘game’ plays. Chapter Five demonstrates the ways in which Dekker transforms the tropes of Chaucer’s Loathly Lady in The Wife of Bath’s Tale into performative metaphors in The Roaring Girl, a fantasy satire. This is the first attempt to discuss and study, in full, Dekker’s texts alongside their source. Through Dekker’s Chaucerian re-imaginings, we see the playwright’s three-dimensional transformation of his source and the ways he visualises his performances.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Dekker, Thomas, ca. 1572-1632 -- Criticism and interpretation, Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400 -- Criticism and interpretation, Dramatists, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography, Theater -- Great Britain -- History -- 16th century, Theater -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century, English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism, English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
Official Date:	16 October 2008
Dates:	Date Event 16 October 2008 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for the Study of the Renaissance
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Rutter, Carol Chillington
Sponsors:	University of Warwick (UoW) ; National Science Council (Taiwan)
Extent:	319 leaves
Language:	eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item