Abstract
이동춘 건축과 공간의 양면성: 초서의 「기사의 이야기」와『트로일러스와 크리세이더』를 중심으로 49
~ 66 Medieval and Early Modern English Studies Volume 25 No.
1 (2017)
[Lee, Dong Choon Double-Sidedness of
Architecture and Space in Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale” and Troilus
and Criseyde]
A wall was an ideal image for the civilizing power of art as well
as the condition of stable culture in classical and medieval
times. Above all, it served to make division between the inside
and the outside, while symbolically contrasting the inside with
the outside in terms of value and meaning; the former symbolized
the civilizing forces like harmony and civilization, while the
latter symbolized the disruptive ones like chaos and violence.
However, the architectural constructions including walls appear to
execute two functions in Chaucer’s literary works like The
Knight’s Tale and Troilus and Criseyde. A primary function of the
architectural constructions in Chaucer's works is not simply to
make division between the inside and the outside, but to make
contact and communication between them possible. In The Knight’s
Tale, it is not easy to make a obvious distinction between the
spaces that a wall divides; the disruptive forces of the outside
space such as disorder and violence from which the wall protects
the inside are permeated even in the inside. Moreover, the central
effect of a wall in Chaucerian narratives is the double-sidedness;
a wall as a threshold object simultaneously invites and
discourages connection. In Troilus and Criseyde, a contrast is
drawn between the determinate and fixed meaning within the walls
and the dangerous and disruptive forces that lie beyond them.
However, Troilus and Criseyde goes even further in describing the
behaviors and conditions within the walls in order to reveal the
blurring of the differences between the inside and the outside.
Keywords
Architecture, Space, permeability, “The Knight’s Tale”, Troilus
and Criseyde