"The Knight's Tale": Against Synthesis

Abstract

Loosely following Bakhtin's lead, this paper points to the successive acts of marginalisation that have over the years led to the standard critic's production of internally consistent and coherent readings of Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" and supplies readings of select passages from the text in an attempt to demonstrate the inherently fractured or heteroglossic nature of this text and, by implication, of all texts.

Opsomming
Hierdie artikel skets - deur in bree trekke op Bakhtin te steun - die opeenvolgende handelinge van marginalisering, wat oor die jare gelei het tot die standaard kritikus se produksie van intern konsekwente en samehangende lesings van Chaucer se "Knight's Tale". Dit verskaf lesings van geselekteerde gedeeltes van die teks in 'n poging om die inherent gefragmenteerde of heteroglostiese aard van die teks en, by implikasie, van alle tekste aan te loon.