Finding a Medievalist Narratology in Chaucer: Reinvention in The Wife of Bath's Tale

To begin with, it is important to distinguish what is meant by 'medievalist narratology' from 'medieval narratology,' as well as the similarity between terms. 'Medievalist narratology' is meant to call to mind medievalism(s), but the pursuit of such is not different than the pursuit of a 'medieval narratology.' Eva von Contzen's "Why We Need a Medieval Narratology: A Manifesto" discusses the problems and inconsistencies in establishing a medieval narratology, ultimately arguing that collaboration among medievalists must occur for one to be established. In other words, von Contzen calls for medievalists to create a narrative theory to show how medieval authors created narratives.¹ The alterity of the Middle Ages and the resulting medievalism(s) are problematic to establishing a medieval narratology. Medieval scholars, depending on their view of history versus historicity and historiography, are already removed from the Middle Ages. Hence Umberto Eco's request to responsibly define which Middle Ages is being discussed.² If medievalists are attempting to create a narratology that fits medieval narrative, it must be acknowledged that the contemporary view of the Middle Ages is necessarily going to inform any such attempt. In fact, von Contzen cautions against "a theory of narrative that is (re)constructed from medieval discussions about how to compose and structure texts, but rather a narrative theory that seeks to explain the forms and functions of medieval practices of narration."³ Doing so would avoid anachronistic "back-casting" what is believed to be the medieval narrative thought. A medieval theory of narrative would be based on those structures and forms of compositions the medieval peoples embraced; after all, as Eco eloquently states "From ancient Greece and Rome we acquired a certain idea of tragedy . . . and an ideal of beauty, as well as our basic philosophical concepts. But from the Middle Ages we learned how to use them."⁴ Eco is discussing medieval invention stemming from antiquity; composition and rhetoric are no different. However, the shift in how these established schemata were used began in the Middle Ages, and it is only looking back that medievalists can attempt to determine where the shift happens; therefore, not a medieval, but a medievalist narratology.⁵

A medievalist narratology, as a narratology that searches for shift in narrative function, is also a rhizomatic narratology. The shifts in usage cause eruptions in the text. Authors use conventions in new ways, alter borrowed text to create new meaning, or borrow near word-for-word adaptations juxtaposed to an unexpected variable that shifts the meaning. Their usages derive from Ur-sources, removed at a potential of infinites because the root of orality cannot be determined. Neomedieval texts are no different. Medieval scholars have a tendency to either embrace the genre or reject it. In the theory of medievalism narratology this stigma is erased. All texts are medievalist texts, resting in the middle, somewhere between Ur and any future iteration. Medieval texts themselves are more obviously situated in the middle because of their location in the Middle Ages, resting between antiquity and modernity. The source of orality is alluring and mystifying because it cannot be known. For example, Beowulf is known to have been altered from its oral original and Christianized in the early Middle Ages. Likewise, Arthuriana likely originated from an oral tradition as well. This gap cannot be overcome, but the lacunae in narratology can be identified if certain functions are seen as trace elements of the past.

In this case, Vladimir Propp, often considered the father of folklore scholarship, famously proposed over thirty functions that might help in narratology.⁶ But Propp's functions are limited to the types of narratives in which they are found. As seen with the Arne-Thompson classification system, classifying any number of types of tales can be done extensively, yet the information leaves little value to be obtained from the text and the nature of storytelling as a whole.⁷ For this reason, von Contzen cites Monika Fludernik's call for a diachronic narratology "that does not neglect whole periods in its surveys."⁸ But first, according to...