<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>UTas ePrints - Chaucer and the Subject of Bureaucracy</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/javascript/auto.js"><!-- padder --></script>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">@import url(http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/auto.css);</style>
<style type="text/css" media="print">@import url(http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/print.css);</style>
<link rel="icon" href="/images/eprints/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/images/eprints/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="Top" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/" />
<link rel="Search" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/search" />
<meta content="Mead, Jenna" name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="jenna.mead@utas.edu.au" name="eprints.creators_id" />
<meta content="article" name="eprints.type" />
<meta content="2007-09-17" name="eprints.datestamp" />
<meta content="2008-01-08 15:30:00" name="eprints.lastmod" />
<meta content="show" name="eprints.metadata_visibility" />
<meta content="Chaucer and the Subject of Bureaucracy" name="eprints.title" />
<meta content="pub" name="eprints.ispublished" />
<meta content="420200" name="eprints.subjects" />
<meta content="restricted" name="eprints.full_text_status" />
<meta content="KEYWORDS: Chaucer, bureaucracy, biography, subjectivity, offi cial records " name="eprints.keywords" />
<meta content="This article first appeared in 2006 @ <http://www.english.ufl.edu/exemplaria/SD/Mead.htm>. It was republished in the format deposited on e-Print. Bibliographic details cite the current format." name="eprints.note" />
<meta content="This paper takes its lead from Sheila Delany's important and influential
"Slaying Python: Marriage and Misogyny in a Chaucerian Text" (1996). Delany's
argument offers a number of theoretical and interpretive interventions
in liberal humanist readings of a particular Chaucerian text, the canonical
poetic fi gure of Chaucer and Chaucer as biographical subject. In The Life of
Geoffrey Chaucer, Derek Pearsall considers Chaucer's acceptance of the post
of Comptroller of the Wool Custom and the Wool Subsidy in June 1374 and
comments that Chaucer's "career shifted decisively away from the immediate
environs of the royal court": the Comptroller "job itself was something of
a chore and not a usual avenue to promotion for an ambitious squire."My
argument is that this fourteen-year career as a bureaucrat, coming as it does
after Chaucer's earlier periods of military service (1359-60, 1369, 1370) and
the years 1366-1378 during which Chaucer undertakes perhaps fi ve diplomatic
and trade missions, raises a question about the subjectivity we construct for
Chaucer out of the conjunction of public writing and personal history: what
might it mean to read a 'bureaucratic Chaucer'?
" name="eprints.abstract" />
<meta content="2005-09-30" name="eprints.date" />
<meta content="submitted" name="eprints.date_type" />
<meta content="Exemplaria" name="eprints.publication" />
<meta content="19" name="eprints.volume" />
<meta content="1" name="eprints.number" />
<meta content="39-66" name="eprints.pagerange" />
<meta content="10.1179/175330707X203200" name="eprints.id_number" />
<meta content="UNSPECIFIED" name="eprints.thesis_type" />
<meta content="TRUE" name="eprints.refereed" />
<meta content="1041-2573 (print) 1753-3074 (online)" name="eprints.issn" />
<meta content="http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/175330707X203200" name="eprints.official_url" />
<meta content="Works Cited
Accounting History: Some British Contributions. Ed. R. H. Parker and B. S. Yamey. Oxford: Clarendon,
1994. 197-235.
Baxter, W. T.Early Accounting: The Tally and the Checker-board."Eearly Accounting History. 197-235.
Benveniste, Emile. Problems in General Linguistics. Trans. M. E. Meek. Coral Gables: U of Miami P,
1971.
Bestul, Thomas. Review of The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography by Derek Pearsall.
Speculum 69 (1994): 87-73.
Brewer, Derek, ed. Chaucer: The Critical Heritage 1, 1385-1837. London: Routledge, 1978.
Brown, A. L. The Governance of Late Medieval England, 1271-1461. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989.
Cannon, Christopher. "Raptus in the Chaumpaigne Release and a Newly Discovered Document Concerning
the Life of Geoffrey Chaucer. Speculum 68 (1993): 74-94.
Carlson, David. Chaucer's Jobs. New York: Palgrave, 2004.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Gen. ed. Larry D. Benson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1988
Chaucer's World. Compiled by Edith Rickert. Ed. Clair C. Olson and Martin M. Crow. New York:
Columbia UP; London: Oxford UP, 1948.
Crow, Martin M. and Clair C. Olson, ed. Chaucer Life-Records.. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1966.
Delany, Sheila. "Slaying Python: Marriage and Misogyny in a Chaucerian Text." Writing Woman:
Women Writers and Women in Literature, Medieval to Modern. New York: Schocken, 1983. 47-75.
Strategies of Silence in the Wife of Bath's Recital Exemplaria 2 (1990): 49-69.
Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Brian
Massumi. London: Athlone, 1988.
Felman, Shoshana. Turning the Screw of Interpretation. Literature and Psychoanalysis: The Question of
Reading Otherwise. Ed. Feldman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1977, 1982. 94-207.
Fitznigel (Fitzneale), Richard. De Necessariis Observantiis Scaccarii Dialogus qui vulgo dicitur Dialogus
de Scaccario, The Course of the Exchequer by Richard, Son of Nigel, Treasurer of England and Bishop
of London. Ed. and trans. Charles Johnson. London: Thomas Nelson, 1950.
Ganim, John. Double Entry in Chaucer's Shipman's Tale: Chaucer and Bookkeeping Before Pacioli.ChauR 30 (1993): 294-305.
CHAUCER AND THE SUBJECT OF BUREAUCRACY 65
Glimp, David and Michelle R. Warren, eds. Arts of Calculation: Quantifying Thought in Early Modern
Europe. New York: Palgrave, 2004.
Haskins, C. H. and M. D. George. Verses on the Exchequer in the Fifteenth Century.
English Historical
Review 36 (1921): 58-67.
Hunter, Ian. Rethinking the School: Subjectivity, Bureaucracy, Criticism. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen &
Unwin, 1994.
Johnston, Andrew James, Clerks and Courtiers: Chaucer, Late Middle English Literature, and the State
Formation Process. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 2001.
Kaye, Joel. Money and Administrative Calculation as Refl ected in Scholastic Natural Philosophy. Arts
of Calculation. Glimp and Warren,1-18
Kelly, Henry Ansgar. Meanings and Uses of Raptus in Chaucer's Time.SAC 20 (1998): 101-65.
Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn and Steven Justice.Langlandian Reading Circles and the Civil Service in London
and Dublin, 1380-1427. New Medieval Literatures 1 (1997): 59-83.
Knapp, Ethan. The Bureaucratic Muse: Thomas Hoccleve and the Literature of Late Medieval England.
University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2001.
Lamond, Elizabeth, ed. Walter of Henley's Husbandry, together with an Anonymous Husbandry,
Seneschaucie, and Robert Grosseteste's Rules. Intro. W. Cunningham, London: Longmans, 1890.
Lewisohn, Mark. The Guide to Comedy, 16 Mar 2005,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/y/yesminister_7777145.shtml.
Nobes, Christopher W.The Gallerani Account Book. Accounting History. 239-49.
The Gallerani Account Book of 1305-1308 The Development of Double Entry: Selected Essay.
Ed. Christopher W. Nobes. New York: Garland, 1984. 63-70.
Orme, Nicholas. English Schools in the Middle Ages. London: Methuen, 1973.
Oschinsky, D. Medieval Treatises on Estate Accounting. Accounting History, 91-98.
Parker, R. H. British Men of Account. Papers on Accounting History. New York: Garland, 1984.
Accounting in Chaucers Canterbury Tales. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 12
(1999): 92-112.
Patterson. Lee. Review of Social Chaucer by Paul Strohm. Speculum 67 (1992): 485-88.
Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
Richardson, H. G. Business Training in Medieval Oxford. American Historical Review 46 (194-41):
259-80.
Robert, Rudolph. A Short History of Tallies Studies in the History of Accounting. Ed. A. C. Littleton
and B. S. Yamey. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1956. 75 -85.
Robertson, Kellie.Laboring in the God of Love's Garden: Chaucer's Prologue to The Legend of Good
Women. SAC 24 (2002): 115-47.
Strohm, Paul. Politics and Poetics: Usk and Chaucer Literary Practice and Social Change in Britain,
1308-1530. Ed. Lee Patterson. Berkeley: U of California P, 1990. 83-112.
"Introduction" and "Mellyagant's Primal Scene". Theory and the Premodern Text. Minneapolis: U
of Minnesota P, 2000.
Tout, Thomas Frederick. Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England: The Wardrobe,
the Chamber and the Small Seals. Vol. 4. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1928.
"Literature and Learning in the English Civil Service in the Fourteenth Century." Speculum 4 (1929):
365-89.
The English Civil Service in the Fourteenth Century. Collected Papers of Thomas Frederick Tout.
Vol. 3. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1934.
Woolf, Arthur H. The English Exchequer. A Short History of Accountants and Accounting. New
York: Garland, 1986. 63-65.
Yamey, Basil S. Further Essays on the History of Accounting. Ed. Richard P. Brief. London: Garland,
1982.
Yes Minister. Written Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Dir. Stuart Allen, Sydney Lotterby, Peter Whitmore.
BBC Television. Series 1 and 2 (1981). Series 3 (1982).
66 JENNA MEAD
Notes on Contributor
Jenna Mead teaches in the English program in the University of Tasmania and has
particular interests in late fourteenth-century English medieval writing and the
ongoing discourses of medievalism that pervade post-medieval periods, including
contemporary popular film, electronic and writing cultures. She also teaches in
the area of literary theory. She is a member of the Australian and New Zealand
Association for Medieval and Early Modern Research, the New Chaucer Society
and the Medieval Academy of America. Her publications include studies of both
late medieval culture and modern gender and political issues.
" name="eprints.referencetext" />
<meta content="Mead, Jenna (2005) Chaucer and the Subject of Bureaucracy. Exemplaria, 19 (1). pp. 39-66. ISSN 1041-2573 (print) 1753-3074 (online)" name="eprints.citation" />
<meta content="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1950/1/EXM_Mead.pdf" name="eprints.document_url" />
<link rel="schema.DC" href="http://purl.org/DC/elements/1.0/" />
<meta content="Chaucer and the Subject of Bureaucracy" name="DC.title" />
<meta content="Mead, Jenna" name="DC.creator" />
<meta content="420200 Literature Studies" name="DC.subject" />
<meta content="This paper takes its lead from Sheila Delany's important and influential
"Slaying Python: Marriage and Misogyny in a Chaucerian Text" (1996). Delany's
argument offers a number of theoretical and interpretive interventions
in liberal humanist readings of a particular Chaucerian text, the canonical
poetic fi gure of Chaucer and Chaucer as biographical subject. In The Life of
Geoffrey Chaucer, Derek Pearsall considers Chaucer's acceptance of the post
of Comptroller of the Wool Custom and the Wool Subsidy in June 1374 and
comments that Chaucer's "career shifted decisively away from the immediate
environs of the royal court": the Comptroller "job itself was something of
a chore and not a usual avenue to promotion for an ambitious squire."My
argument is that this fourteen-year career as a bureaucrat, coming as it does
after Chaucer's earlier periods of military service (1359-60, 1369, 1370) and
the years 1366-1378 during which Chaucer undertakes perhaps fi ve diplomatic
and trade missions, raises a question about the subjectivity we construct for
Chaucer out of the conjunction of public writing and personal history: what
might it mean to read a 'bureaucratic Chaucer'?
" name="DC.description" />
<meta content="2005-09-30" name="DC.date" />
<meta content="Article" name="DC.type" />
<meta content="PeerReviewed" name="DC.type" />
<meta content="application/pdf" name="DC.format" />
<meta content="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1950/1/EXM_Mead.pdf" name="DC.identifier" />
<meta content="http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/175330707X203200" name="DC.relation" />
<meta content="Mead, Jenna (2005) Chaucer and the Subject of Bureaucracy. Exemplaria, 19 (1). pp. 39-66. ISSN 1041-2573 (print) 1753-3074 (online)" name="DC.identifier" />
<meta content="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1950/" name="DC.relation" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/BibTeX/epprod-eprint-1950.bib" title="BibTeX" type="text/plain" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/ContextObject/epprod-eprint-1950.xml" title="OpenURL ContextObject" type="text/xml" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/ContextObject::Dissertation/epprod-eprint-1950.xml" title="OpenURL Dissertation" type="text/xml" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/ContextObject::Journal/epprod-eprint-1950.xml" title="OpenURL Journal" type="text/xml" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/DC/epprod-eprint-1950.txt" title="Dublin Core" type="text/plain" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/DIDL/epprod-eprint-1950.xml" title="DIDL" type="text/xml" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/EndNote/epprod-eprint-1950.enw" title="EndNote" type="text/plain" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/HTML/epprod-eprint-1950.html" title="HTML Citation" type="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/METS/epprod-eprint-1950.xml" title="METS" type="text/xml" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/MODS/epprod-eprint-1950.xml" title="MODS" type="text/xml" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/RIS/epprod-eprint-1950.ris" title="Reference Manager" type="text/plain" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/Refer/epprod-eprint-1950.refer" title="Refer" type="text/plain" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/Simple/epprod-eprint-1950text" title="Simple Metadata" type="text/plain" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/Text/epprod-eprint-1950.txt" title="ASCII Citation" type="text/plain; charset=utf-8" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/export/1950/XML/epprod-eprint-1950.xml" title="EP3 XML" type="text/xml" />
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" onLoad="loadRoutine(); MM_preloadImages('images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c5_f2.gif','images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c7_f2.gif','images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c8_f2.gif','images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c9_f2.gif','images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c10_f2.gif','images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c11_f2.gif','images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r6_c4_f2.gif')">
<div class="ep_noprint"><noscript><style type="text/css">@import url(http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/nojs.css);</style></noscript></div>
<table width="795" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td><script language="JavaScript1.2">mmLoadMenus();</script>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="795">
<!-- fwtable fwsrc="eprints_banner_final2.png" fwbase="ePrints_banner.gif" fwstyle="Dreamweaver" fwdocid = "1249563342" fwnested="0" -->
<tr>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="32" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="104" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="44" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="105" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="41" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="16" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="68" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="68" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="68" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="82" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="69" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="98" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="12"><img name="ePrints_banner_r1_c1" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r1_c1.gif" width="795" height="10" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="10" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="6"><img name="ePrints_banner_r2_c1" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r2_c1.gif" width="32" height="118" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td rowspan="5"><a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/"><img name="ePrints_banner_r2_c2" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r2_c2.gif" width="104" height="103" border="0" alt="" /></a></td>
<td colspan="10"><img name="ePrints_banner_r2_c3" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r2_c3.gif" width="659" height="41" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="41" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/"><img name="ePrints_banner_r3_c3" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r3_c3.gif" width="190" height="31" border="0" alt="" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="2" colspan="7"><img name="ePrints_banner_r3_c6" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r3_c6.gif" width="469" height="37" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="31" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3"><img name="ePrints_banner_r4_c3" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r4_c3.gif" width="190" height="6" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="6" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c3" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c3.gif" width="149" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td rowspan="2" colspan="2"><a href="/information.html" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore();MM_startTimeout()" onMouseOver="MM_showMenu(window.mm_menu_0821132634_0,0,25,null,'ePrints_banner_r5_c5');MM_swapImage('ePrints_banner_r5_c5','','/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c5_f2.gif',1);"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c5" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c5.gif" width="57" height="25" border="0" alt="About" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="2"><a href="/view/" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore();MM_startTimeout()" onMouseOver="MM_showMenu(window.mm_menu_0821133021_1,0,25,null,'ePrints_banner_r5_c7');MM_swapImage('ePrints_banner_r5_c7','','/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c7_f2.gif',1);"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c7" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c7.gif" width="68" height="25" border="0" alt="Browse" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="2"><a href="/perl/search/simple" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore();MM_startTimeout()" onMouseOver="MM_showMenu(window.mm_menu_0821133201_2,0,25,null,'ePrints_banner_r5_c8');MM_swapImage('ePrints_banner_r5_c8','','/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c8_f2.gif',1);"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c8" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c8.gif" width="68" height="25" border="0" alt="Search" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="2"><a href="/perl/register" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore();MM_startTimeout();" onMouseOver="MM_showMenu(window.mm_menu_1018171924_3,0,25,null,'ePrints_banner_r5_c9');MM_swapImage('ePrints_banner_r5_c9','','/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c9_f2.gif',1);"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c9" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c9.gif" width="68" height="25" border="0" alt="register" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="2"><a href="/perl/users/home" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore();MM_startTimeout()" onMouseOver="MM_showMenu(window.mm_menu_0821133422_4,0,25,null,'ePrints_banner_r5_c10');MM_swapImage('ePrints_banner_r5_c10','','/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c10_f2.gif',1);"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c10" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c10.gif" width="82" height="25" border="0" alt="user area" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="2"><a href="/help/" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore();MM_startTimeout()" onMouseOver="MM_showMenu(window.mm_menu_0821133514_5,0,25,null,'ePrints_banner_r5_c11');MM_swapImage('ePrints_banner_r5_c11','','/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c11_f2.gif',1);"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c11" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c11.gif" width="69" height="25" border="0" alt="Help" /></a></td>
<td rowspan="3" colspan="4"><img name="ePrints_banner_r5_c12" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r5_c12.gif" width="98" height="40" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td rowspan="2"><img name="ePrints_banner_r6_c3" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r6_c3.gif" width="44" height="39" border="0" alt="ePrints home" /></td>
<td><a href="/" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('ePrints_banner_r6_c4','','/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r6_c4_f2.gif',1);"><img name="ePrints_banner_r6_c4" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r6_c4.gif" width="105" height="24" border="0" alt="ePrints home" /></a></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="24" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img name="ePrints_banner_r7_c2" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r7_c2.gif" width="104" height="15" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td colspan="8"><img name="ePrints_banner_r7_c4" src="/images/eprints/ePrints_banner_r7_c4.gif" width="517" height="15" border="0" alt="" /></td>
<td><img src="/images/eprints/spacer.gif" width="1" height="15" border="0" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><table width="100%" style="font-size: 90%; border: solid 1px #ccc; padding: 3px"><tr>
<td align="left"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home">Login</a> | <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/register">Create Account</a></td>
<td align="right" style="white-space: nowrap">
<form method="get" accept-charset="utf-8" action="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/search" style="display:inline">
<input class="ep_tm_searchbarbox" size="20" type="text" name="q" />
<input class="ep_tm_searchbarbutton" value="Search" type="submit" name="_action_search" />
<input type="hidden" name="_order" value="bytitle" />
<input type="hidden" name="basic_srchtype" value="ALL" />
<input type="hidden" name="_satisfyall" value="ALL" />
</form>
</td>
</tr></table></td></tr>
<tr>
<td class="toplinks"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="content" -->
<div align="center">
<table width="720" class="ep_tm_main"><tr><td align="left">
<h1 class="ep_tm_pagetitle">Chaucer and the Subject of Bureaucracy</h1>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><span class="person_name">Mead, Jenna</span> (2005) <xhtml:em>Chaucer and the Subject of Bureaucracy.</xhtml:em> Exemplaria, 19 (1). pp. 39-66. ISSN 1041-2573 (print) 1753-3074 (online)</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"></p><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1950/1/EXM_Mead.pdf"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1950/1/EXM_Mead.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF</span></a> - Full text restricted - Requires a PDF viewer<br />256Kb</td></tr></table><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block">Official URL: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/175330707X203200">http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/175330707X203200</a></p><div class="not_ep_block"><h2>Abstract</h2><p style="padding-bottom: 16px; text-align: left; margin: 1em auto 0em auto">This paper takes its lead from Sheila Delany's important and influential
"Slaying Python: Marriage and Misogyny in a Chaucerian Text" (1996). Delany's
argument offers a number of theoretical and interpretive interventions
in liberal humanist readings of a particular Chaucerian text, the canonical
poetic fi gure of Chaucer and Chaucer as biographical subject. In The Life of
Geoffrey Chaucer, Derek Pearsall considers Chaucer's acceptance of the post
of Comptroller of the Wool Custom and the Wool Subsidy in June 1374 and
comments that Chaucer's "career shifted decisively away from the immediate
environs of the royal court": the Comptroller "job itself was something of
a chore and not a usual avenue to promotion for an ambitious squire."My
argument is that this fourteen-year career as a bureaucrat, coming as it does
after Chaucer's earlier periods of military service (1359-60, 1369, 1370) and
the years 1366-1378 during which Chaucer undertakes perhaps fi ve diplomatic
and trade missions, raises a question about the subjectivity we construct for
Chaucer out of the conjunction of public writing and personal history: what
might it mean to read a 'bureaucratic Chaucer'?
</p></div><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" cellpadding="3" class="not_ep_block" border="0"><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Item Type:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Article</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Additional Information:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">This article first appeared in 2006 @ <http://www.english.ufl.edu/exemplaria/SD/Mead.htm>. It was republished in the format deposited on e-Print. Bibliographic details cite the current format.</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Keywords:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">KEYWORDS: Chaucer, bureaucracy, biography, subjectivity, offi cial records </td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Subjects:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/420200.html">420000 Language and Culture > 420200 Literature Studies</a></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ID Code:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">1950</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited By:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><span class="ep_name_citation"><span class="person_name">Dr Jenna Mead</span></span></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited On:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">17 Sep 2007</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Last Modified:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">09 Jan 2008 02:30</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ePrint Statistics:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a target="ePrintStats" href="/es/index.php?action=show_detail_eprint;id=1950;">View statistics for this ePrint</a></td></tr></table><p align="right">Repository Staff Only: <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::View&eprintid=1950">item control page</a></p>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><!-- #BeginLibraryItem "/Library/footer_eprints.lbi" -->
<table width="795" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" class="footer">
<tr valign="top">
<td colspan="2"><div align="center"><a href="http://www.utas.edu.au">UTAS home</a> | <a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/library/">Library home</a> | <a href="/">ePrints home</a> | <a href="/contact.html">contact</a> | <a href="/information.html">about</a> | <a href="/view/">browse</a> | <a href="/perl/search/simple">search</a> | <a href="/perl/register">register</a> | <a href="/perl/users/home">user area</a> | <a href="/help/">help</a></div><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><p><img src="/images/eprints/footerline.gif" width="100%" height="4" /></p></td></tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td width="68%" class="footer">Authorised by the University Librarian<br />
© University of Tasmania ABN 30 764 374 782<br />
<a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/cricos/">CRICOS Provider Code 00586B</a> | <a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/copyright/copyright_disclaimers.html">Copyright & Disclaimers</a> | <a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/accessibility/index.html">Accessibility</a> | <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/feedback/">Site Feedback</a> </td>
<td width="32%"><div align="right">
<p align="right" class="NoPrint"><a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/"><img src="http://www.utas.edu.au/shared/logos/unioftasstrip.gif" alt="University of Tasmania Home Page" width="260" height="16" border="0" align="right" /></a></p>
<p align="right" class="NoPrint"><a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/"><br />
</a></p>
</div></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p> </p></td>
<td><div align="right"><span class="NoPrint"><a href="http://www.eprints.org/software/"><img src="/images/eprintslogo.gif" alt="ePrints logo" width="77" height="29" border="0" align="bottom" /></a></span></div></td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- #EndLibraryItem -->
<div align="center"></div></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
