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Patience Agbabi, The Canterbury Tales, and Polyhistorical Form.

  • Published In: ELH, 2024, v. 91, n. 1. P. 263 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Miller, Peter 3 of 3

Abstract

This essay engages the question of historical form via one of the more remarkable retellings of Chaucer, the British-Nigerian poet Patience Agbabi's 2014 book Telling Tales. Retaining Chaucer's governing conceit that the pilgrims share tales to pass the time while traveling from London to Canterbury, Agbabi layers onto this frame narrative a dazzling array of poetic and linguistic forms. The result is a work that flaunts its literary historical textures while resisting single period-based historicization. Rather than peeling back the layers of culture and history that inevitably accrue on artworks as they pass through time, Agbabi's book accentuates them, modeling a brand of historical poetics based not on recovery, but remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:ELH. 2024/03, Vol. 91, Issue 1, p263
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2024
  • ISSN:0013-8304
  • DOI:10.1353/elh.2024.a922016
  • Accession Number:176096185
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