Chaucers the House Of Fame: The Cultural Nature Of Fame :: essays research papers

Chaucers "The House of Fame" The Cultural Nature of FameQUESTION 7.DISCUSS THE CULTURAL NATURE OF FAME AND ITS TEXTUAL EXPRESSION WITH REFERENCE TO one OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING ORAL HEROIC POETRY, CHAUCERS DEPICTION IN THEHOUSE OF FAME AND THE MODERN CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANON OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.YOU SHOULD FOCUS YOUR ANALYSIS ON THE INTERPLAY OF ORAL AND LITERARY TRADITIONSIN THESE CONTEXTS.M any(prenominal) critics have noted the complexities within Chaucers The House of Fame,in particular, the complexities between the oral and the literary. Thedifferences between these methods atomic number 18 constantly look Chaucer is wellaware of rapidly changing communicative practises and contrasts the preservationof utterance with the longevity of literary texts. He achieves this bydiscussing the nature of "Fame" and the difficulties that arise from it. "Fame" lowlife both destroy and create. It can result in the eternal preservation of greatworks and their creato rs. However, Chaucer is quick to note the precariousnature of "fame" noting the unreliable process of attaining it and itspotentially momentary existence. Every creator with their respective work/snaturally crave and desire "fame" they want their subjects to remain fresh inthe minds of their audience. Chaucer, while incomplete totally praising the writtennor the oral, reveals how essentially the written word is far more likely tobecome eternal as opposed to the oral. The relative "fame" of any work isdependent on many factors. Many traditional and classical ideas result in theformation of the English canon, yet as Chaucer indicates, the "fame" of theseworks can easily become annihilated. The arrival of new readers with differentideals and thereby changing tradition, can reject classical or "canonical" workand their "fame" will mellow out into nothingness.Most stories, histories and legends that emerge from oral heroic poetry areto he rald the achievement of the powerful and wealthy so that their historieswill not fade from the memories of the population. The stories of Beowolf are aclear example of this, as within these stories, (whether embellished or no),Beowolfs fame and legend reaches the modern reader hundreds of years later.Clearly, Beowolf is still very much dependant on the conventions of oraltraditions and written to leave a permanent reminder of Beowolf, to enforceBeowolfs fame. The use of "Hwaet" to mark the start of an oration, emphasisesthe continuation of oral tradition. Most oral cultures (usually illiterate), cut into on stories and legends learnt from the previous generation, basically usingthe authority of recalled memory, not as an actual witness rather I have heardit said than I know this to be true.