Preface

PREFACE "All interpretation is necessarily reconstruction," according to Derek Brewer in the address which introduces this volume. He goes on to discuss senses in which Chaucer's text is both familiar (requiring an immediate aesthetic response) and different (requiring special understanding of his world). His argument suggests that our task as critics is to gain technical understanding of the large structures and the particular details of Chau­ cer's world without sacrificing our direct response to his art. The papers in this volume seem likely to satisfy Professor Brewer's hopes. Each ventures from Chaucer's text to the "world" in which it is situated­ whether the world of semantic meaning, of previous texts, of ideology, of literary theory, or of scientific inquiry. More importantly, each returns to its starting-point in the art of Chaucer's text, willingly placing its discov­ eries at the service of understanding. Taken together, these papers explore a variety of delicate and reciprocal affiliations between Chaucer's text and other creations of his society, in ways which enrich rather than deplete our sense of textual meaning. The members of the Editorial Committee are pleased to present these papers from the 1984 York Congress. The complete Congress Program is printed at the end of this volume, so that readers may see the intelletual context of the papers printed here-many of which were encouraged in the first instance by session chairpersons and supported topically by the contri­ butions of other participants. The Program also conveys an important dimension of the Congress which is evident in this volume as well: its truly international character. Some of the York papers were already committed for publication else­ where when this volume was announced. Some persons giving papers chose not to seek publication at this time. In all too many cases, limitations of space prevented inclusion of highly meritorious papers. Those papers which remain, however, suggest both the breadth and the intellectual vitality of the Congress as a whole. Vll RECONSTRUCTING CHAUCER Derek Pearsall and Florence Ridley completed the Program Committee for the Congress, and the three of us-joined by SAC Editor Thomas Heffernan-constituted the Editorial Committee for this volume. Thomas Heffernan has overseen production of the volume, and John Fisher has been generous with advice and encouragement at every stage. June, 1985 Paul Strohm VlU ...