Russell Peck & Robert F. Yeager 
John Gower: Others and the Self 

New essays on aspects of Gower’s poetry, viewed through the lens of the self and beyond.


The topics of ’selfhood‘ and ‚otherness‘ lie at the heart of these new assessments of John Gower’s poetry. The first part of the book, on knowing the self and others, focuses on cognition, brain functions, imagination, and the internal and external factors that affect one’s sense of being, from sensation and inner emotive effects within body parts to cosmic perspectives, morality, and theology as voiced by language and storytelling. The second, on the essence of strangers, explores the interconnections of sensation and aesthetics; it also considers kinds of social dysfunction, whether through racial or gender conflict, or religious and political warfare.The final part of the booklooks at social ethics and ethical poets, reassessing two of Gower’s perpetual concerns: honest government and honest craft. It considers Gower as a constitutional thinker, whether in terms of law, judicial corruption, or a society of businessmen who would rewrite ethics in terms of business models. It concludes with an examination of the
Confessio in the culture of Portugal and Spain.


Russell Peck is the John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester: R. F. Yeager is Professor of English at the University of West Florida.


Contributors: Stephanie L. Batkie, Helen Cooper, Brian W. Gastle, Matthew Giancarlo, Matthew W. Irvin, Yoshiko Kobayashi, Robert J. Meindl, Peter Nicholson, Maura Nolan, Gabrielle Parkin, Russell A. Peck, Ana Sáez-Hidalgo, Larry Scanlon, Karla Taylor, Kim Zarins, R.F. Yeager,

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction – Robert F. Yeager and Russell Peck

The Materiality of Cognition in Reading, Staging, and Regulation of Brain and Heart Activities in Gower’s
Confessio Amantis – Russell Peck

The Sound of My Voice: Aurality and Credible Faith in the
Vox Clamantis – Stephanie L. Batkie

‚Noght withoute peine‘: Chastity, Complaint, and Lucrece’s
Vox Clamantis – Matthew W. Irvin

Reading Faces in Gower and Chaucer – Karla Taylor

Gower and Mortality: The Ends of Storytelling – Helen Cooper

Sensation and the Plain Style in John Gower’s
Confessio Amantis – Maura Nolan

Violence without Warning: Sympathetic Villains and Gower’s Crafting of Ovidian Narrative – Kim Zarins

Gower, Lydgate, and Incest – Larry Scanlon

Gower’s Jews – Robert F. Yeager

Letters of Old Age: The Advocacy of Peace in the Works of John Gower and Philippe de Mézières – Yoshiko Kobayashi

Gower’s Governmentality: Revisiting John Gower as a Constitutional Thinker and Regiminal Writer – Matthew Giancarlo

Gower’s
Speculum Iudicis: Judicial Corruption in Book VI of the
Vox Clamantis – Robert J. Meindl

‚The lucre of marchandie‘: Poet, Patron, and Payment in Gower’s
Confessio Amantis – Brian Gastle

Hidden Matter in John Gower’s
Confessio Amantis – Gabrielle Parkin

Writing the
Cinkante Balades – Peter Nicholson

Gower in Early Modern Spanish Libraries: The Missing Link – Ana Saez-Hidalgo

Bibliography