Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context ed. by Erik Kooper (review)

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER scope ... ) distresses him, as it does me.Perhaps as a result, it does seem to me that he goes too far in devaluing commentators who focus instead on cultural context, psychology, social class, history....I guess I don't under­ stand why we can't have both.Why we can't do both.Doesn't a critic need both kinds ofevidence-text-internal and text-external-in order to make a truly persuasive case? For example, Klitgard himself, in spite of striving to focus on Chaucer's narrative voice, finds no significant difference between Palamon and Arcite; discussing their prayers, for example, he does not mention the fact that Arcite's is structured rationally, divided into logical parts, whereas Pal­ amon's is written in an emotionally associative style.Chaucer's narrative voice uses this same contrast in describing the two young men en route to their respective temples to pray: Arcite is described in rational, straightfor­ ward syntax; Palamon, in syntactically convoluted, repetitive phrases.In Chaucer's culture this kind of contrast was considered highly significant. Again, discussing the descriptions of the temples of the gods, Klitgard does not mention the fact that Chaucer's narrative voice structures Venus's and Mars's in the form of lists, whereas Diana's is in the form of story summaries.In Chaucer's culture this too was a meaning-filled contrast. Thus, even when focusing narrowly on language use, in order to find out what is actually there in the language the poet was using, the critic still needs all the text-external help she or he can get, whether from history or culture or literary or linguistic theory or all of these.I was delighted to see Klitgard's insistence on the importance of zooming in on Chaucer's use of language, in my opinion a much neglected area.Confronting a poet's lan­ guage is the most demanding task the literary critic faces, or more com­ monly, doesn't face.Klitgard's book certainly faces in the right direction. LOIS RONEY St.Cloud State University ERIK KooPER, ed.Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context. Cam­ bridge Studies in Medieval Literature, vol.21.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1 994.Pp.xv, 327.$64.95. The precocious urban cultures of the Low Countries, and most particularly of Flanders, should prove to be of compelling interest to students of 234 REVIEWS Chaucer and his "age." Court cultures in Hainault, Brabant, and Holland made contact with England through ties of marriage and diplomatic ex­ change; mercantile and artisanate cultures of the great Flemish cities were carried to and into England through the wool trade (a trade closely tied to the fortunes and financing of the Hundred Years' War). Flanders is chosen by Chaucer as the birthplace of his own Sir Thopas and as the setting for The Pardoner's Tale. Bruges forms the hub of the complex religious and mercantile rekenynge elaborated through The Shipman's Tale, a business Chaucer knew first hand through his quayside work in London (1374-86). Flanders, for Chaucer, was more familiar than anywhere in Britain west of Somerset and north ofYorkshire; it can be considered, in many respects, as part of his "native" ground. Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context is a collaborative effort of some twenty scholars currently working in Holland and Belgium. The volume thus represents a bold attempt to bring the medieval textual cul­ tures ofthe Low Countries, as perceived through the disciplinary traditions of those countries, to an English-speaking audience. Not everything can run smoothly in such a genuinely pioneering effort; Cambridge University Press, editor Erik Kooper, and series editor Alastair Minnis are much to be commended for riding out evident difficulties of translatio. The general impression of the volume, and hence of the academic culture that under­ pins it, is of a traditional philology with a penchant for formalist analysis (which nonetheless shows itself cognizant of new developments in Britain and North America). Cognizance does not, of course, imply approval, or even thorough comprehension: the volume's introduction sounds a defen­ sive note in recognizing the absence of "two approaches, very prominent in...