Canterbury Tales includes many tales that villagers tell each other. I'm focusing on the “Friar's Tale” about a summoner being tricked by a devil and eventually being dragged to hell. In the medieval literature tradition we see Canterbury Tales and how it tells its story through allegories, biblical references, and tests and temptations. But if we look at it through a Postmodern lens everything changes, and we see metafiction, fabulism, and rejection of convention. Things that were moral and good in the medieval times, are now wrong in the postmodern times. Like if you were a knight back then you were noble, but if you are a knight now, you will get weird stares, and everyone will think you still live in your moms basement at 30.😉
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In the “Friar’s Tale” when he starts telling his story, he goes on about summoners saying, “He has no jurisdiction On friars and he cannot make infliction Upon us, now or ever, or take dues from Friars”(Chaucer 351) just saying he is better than summons to rile him up. Originally this was to show the relationship of the summoner and the friar and how they hate each other with a passion. But if we look at this through a postmodern lens, we clearly see some metafiction. The Friar says this in his story because he knows that the Summoner is listening to him, and he will get upset if he said that.
THEN there is more metafiction because the Friar gets the repose he is looking for and the Summoner interrupts the story. And the host of this story telling party, has to calm them down “‘The devil take your soul!’ Called out the Host, ‘I say I won’t have squalls. On with your story, sir, and if it galls The Summoner, spare him not, my worthy master!”(Chaucer 351) Which ok pop off king, but the summoner needs to learn how to take a joke sometimes. But, while still looking through this postmodern spyglass with the metafiction, the relationship between the friar and the summoner becomes a lot less harsh and more light-hearted because of the 4th wall breaking. It takes you out of the story, and you look back and see two immature middle school boys teasing each other.
We can see postmodern metafiction like this in the song and music video, “Tribute” by Tenacious D. Like in the “Friar’s Tale”, in the song, they are talking about the song in a song, like how they are talking about the story in the story. Both are using the very postmodern characteristic of acknowledging that they are characters in a story/song.
Metafiction can also come in many forms, a previous comment of mine I explored this. "Like talking to the audience, mentioning that the characters know they are in the song, or talking about the song itself while singing the song. This clip from "Winnie the Pooh" by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, shows some metafiction with Tigger and the narrator talking, and showing him standing on the book. And like Tribute, the metafiction is very clear and adds to the comedy."
While the original purpose of this was to show the toxic relationship between the friar and the summoner. But when comparing it to a postmodern work like “Tribute”, the postmodern element is incredibly obvious, and completely changes the narrative to be a lot more playful than the original jab, which was seen as a lot more harsh before this.
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Fabulism is “an uncomfortable blend of mundane daily life, and surreal events.”(Leach 1) Or something that is fantastical that occurs in everyday life. But if we look at the "Friar's Tale" we can see some of this when the summoner is talking to the Devil, and the devil tells him, “Or rather make you think we have a shape; Sometimes it’s like a man, sometimes an ape, Even an angel riding into bliss”(Chaucer 356) so basically he can shapeshift. And looking at that through our postmodern shades it's very much fabulism. But if we think of the medieval elements it's also magic and the supernatural. Which was actually a lot more normal in that time.
We see more of this magic and supernatural when the devil drags the summoner down to hell, “And on the word this foul fiend made a swoop, And dragged him, body and soul, to join the troupe In Hell” (Chaucer361). Which is definitely some magic. But if we take a step back, we can see that this is weird, they are just in a ladies house, and hell opens and the devil, who was originally the guy harassing her accomplice, is now dragging him down to hell… Yep, that makes perfect sense. So, all of that happening is definitely fabulism, it's not just the “NorMaL” magic, it's just happening out of nowhere in a lady's house.
An example of some postmodern fabulism is in the postmodern flash fiction story, “Inside Where You Belong” by Kate Crosby. In a previous comment of mine, I described it as, “It is humor through the apocalypse. It's full of dark jokes, and is an overall dark story but the idea is that you can either see the humor in the apocalypse or go insane.” It uses birds losing its flight and the world completely changing into an apocalypse as a fabulism element. Fabulism gives off an uneasy feeling to the reader, like a, “Is this really happening” feeling, you know? It’s like watching true crime, and seeing what that human being has done, and just questioning reality and how someone could do that. And this feeling definitely created when the devil drags the summoner down when looking at the postmodern big picture. AS WELL AS when the birds start falling around the narrator in “Inside Where You Belong”.
While the original purpose of using magic and supernatural was to have the friar end with the devil using his fun, quirky powers to kill the summoner. When looking at it through postmodern frames as fabulism, it becomes a lot more eerie and dark.
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Rejection of convention is when the author is rejecting what the societal norm is. “i’M NoT LiKe thE oTHeR gIrLs”. We can see the use… heavy use of biblical references to convey messages like, “And just as Judas kept a little bag, And was a thief, just such a thief was he.”(Chaucer 352). And that was the norm at the time. But looking at it through a postmodern spectacle it really isn't the norm now. So when we do look at it, it really doesn't give off the same message it did looking at it without our postmodern goggles. It gives off a rebellious feeling. We can see it again when we aren't using a Judas one, “Give me twelve pence. No time to wait, old fairy.’ ‘Twelve pence!’ said she. ‘O blessed Virgin Mary,”(Chaucer 360). It just seems mocking more than crying to the Virgin Mary.
An example of a postmodern work using metaphors instead of biblical references to convey messages is “Making A Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye. In a comment I made about the piece, I describe it as, “1988. It connects generations, through its minimalist story and it being a story told by someone that usually doesn’t get their story told. AKA. It’s not a middle aged white male 😀👍” It uses a lot of minimalism because it is so short of a poem, so it uses metaphors to give the message. We can see the message through metaphors when our author is looking back on a road trip with her mom.
If we look at the “Friar’s Tale” like that, you can totally see how out of the social norm it is to be using the biblical references all the time. And when i say all of the time. I MEAN. ALL. OF. THE. TIME. There are soooooo many!!! SO, When we look at these references through our medieval monocle, it seems normal and it doesn't really give the reader any feeling in particular. But again if we look through our postmodern window we get a feeling of it being different, and rebellious.
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If we look at works not from the postmodern era through Postmodern shades, everything changes. and we see metafiction, fabulism, and rejection of convention. Things that were moral and good in other eras of time, are now perceived as wrong or odd in the postmodern times.
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so far, so good!