John Dryden claimed to share a kindred spirit, a congenial soul, with Geoffrey Chaucer, and he was not alone. Reading critics reading Chaucer, Stephanie Trigg makes us privy to the special communities-modeled on the pilgrimage to Canterbury-that rose up around the author as commentators through the ages sought spiritual or emotional intimacy with him. Congenial Souls surveys the critical literature from the late Middle Ages to the contemporary period to show how editors and critics constructed various voices as a response-even a supplement-to Chaucer's work. Focusing on turning points in the history of Chaucerian discourse and in the construction of a special Chaucerian community, Trigg arrives at the fraught notion of a critical community in our day. What, she asks, do feminist studies or contemporary cultural studies portend for such an author-based literary communion? And, if Chaucer is the original "dead white male" author, what will happen to Chaucer studies and medieval studies in the next millennium? The moment is propitious, Trigg suggests, for Chaucerians to examine their own critical history and its inherent contradictions. Richly informed, her work creates a strong basis for such an examination.
Stephanie Trigg is senior lecturer in English at the University of Melbourne. Medieval Cultures Series, volume 30
