Living in the Future: Sovereignty and Internationalism in the Canterbury Tales

283 Pages·2017·1.378 MB·English

by  Susan Nakley

living in the future

living in the future
Sovereignty and Internationalism
in the Canterbury Tales
susan nakley
University of Michigan Press • Ann Arbor
Copyright © 2017 by Susan Nakley
All rights reserved
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written
permission from the publisher.
Published in the United States of America by the
University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
c Printed on acid- free paper
2020 2019 2018 2017 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Nakley, Susan, author.
Title: Living in the future : sovereignty and internationalism in the Canterbury Tales /
Susan Nakley.
Description: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2016058962| isbn 9780472130443 (hardcover : acid- free paper) |
isbn 9780472123049 (e- book)
Subjects: LCSH: Chaucer, Geoffrey, – 1400. Canterbury tales. | Sovereignty in
literature. | Nationalism in literature. | Internationalism in literature. | Tales,
Medieval— History and criticism. | National characteristics, English, in literature.
Classification: LCC pr1874 .n35 2017 | DDC 821/.1— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016058962
For Abraham Alexander Greene
with gratitude for our past,
enthusiasm for our future,
and love— eight days a week

Acknowledgments
These acknowledgments are both a joy and a critical endeavor. As schol-
ars we prize originality, yet we never produce responsible scholarship
alone. Several communities of colleagues and friends have supported
me through years of researching, writing, and revising my manuscript. I
am delighted to honor their roles in bringing this book to life now.
As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, I concentrated in
English and Political Science, learning from two exceptional depart-
ments that together nurtured my interest in the politics of literary art. I
am particularly thankful to Karla Taylor for introducing me to medieval
literature and to Zach Levey, who set me on the path of original research
in political history. At Rutgers University, Chris Chism was my first men-
tor; she remains an exemplar of professionalism, kindness, and genuine
brilliance, an insightful reader, and a dear friend. Susan Crane, Elin Dia-
mond, and Jackie Miller taught me skills I still use every day. Jonathan
Kramnick guided me into this profession as expertly as is possible. It
would be impossible to thank Larry Scanlon adequately for his guidance,
continued support, and patience across the years. I am infinitely grateful
for all I’ve learned from Larry, for the time he invested in helping me
become a responsible medievalist literary scholar, and for his virtuous,
often necessary sense of humor.
Rutgers gave me several amazing fellows I now call friends: I consider
Nicole Nolan Sidhu and Tara Williams my sisters among medievalist col-
leagues. They read for me, share their work and experience, and wisely
advise me on life and survival in our field. I am grateful for the friend-
ship of Rutgers alums and colleagues in the wider field, Jeremy Glick and
Kelly Baker Josephs, who introduced the Pomodoro method to our writ-
ing circle. Liz Reich and Megan Ward have been loyal writing comrades
viii • Acknowledgments
during the most intense stages of drafting and redrafting this book; I
love them for this and much more.
The medievalist community beyond Rutgers has provided indispens-
able counsel and fellowship. Jonathan Hsy and Karl Steel let me learn
from their book proposals and related materials. I thank Maija Biren-
baum, Brantley Bryant, Glenn Burger, John Ganim, Rick Godden, Gerry
Heng, Shirin Khanmohamadi, Ethan Knapp, Ann Martinez, Erin Lab-
bie, Alex Mueller, Myra Seaman, and Stephen Yeager for reading earlier
drafts of my chapters and prospectus and providing vital feedback and
encouragement. Suzanne Conklin Akbari appeared heroically at the
eleventh hour with counsel on an elusive German source. Patty Ingham
and Randy Schiff merit extra- special thanks, not only for their founda-
tional scholarship but also for their expert response to my work. Ever
since I encountered Kathy Lavezzo’s work on the Man of Law’s Tale, she
has awed and inspired me. How thrilled I was finally to meet her and to
have the chance to learn directly from her! Without Kathy’s magnani-
mous early career mentorship, there would be no book before you today.
Many thanks go to my fantastic chair Judy Phagan, and wonderful St.
Joseph’s College colleagues Antoinette Hertel, Phil Dehne, Quincy Lehr,
and Maria Montoya for their support. Our librarians and English majors
make this work enjoyable and meaningful, helping to connect the job
with the research. I am also grateful to St. Joseph’s College for essential
conference funding and a sabbatical, which allowed me to complete my
manuscript.
Earlier versions of chapters 5 and 6 appeared as “Sovereignty Matters:
Anachronism, Chaucer’s Britain, and England’s Future’s Past,” Chaucer
Review 44.4 (2010): 368–9 6 and “‘Rowned She a Pistel’: National Institu-
tions and Identities According to Chaucer’s Wife of Bath,” Journal of En-
glish and Germanic Philology 114.1 (2015): 61– 87. I thank the journals for
permission to reprint this material.
I began and now end my professional thanks in Ann Arbor, which will
always be an intellectual home and a place to which I long to return. My
editors, Ellen Bauerle, Susan Cronin, Kevin Rennells, and my anonymous
readers all did outstanding work on this manuscript for the University of
Michigan Press. I never imagined that working with a press on one’s first
book could be such a smooth, satisfying, and yet deeply transformative
process. There is no place I’d rather be publishing Living in the Future.
Humanist scholarship is not simply professional research but more
fully a vocation. By raising me with love to have both a solid work ethic
and a fundamental confidence in myself, my parents and older brothers
Acknowledgments • ix
made it possible for me to embark on this endeavor in the first place. My
most profound and significant debt is to my husband, best friend, and
partner in all things. Abe’s love, faith, and commitment have carried me
through the last quarter of this life; I feel incredibly thankful and lucky
to spend it with him. This work is as much a product of Abe’s devotion to
me as it is a result of my long study. I am thrilled to dedicate this work to
him at last.