Chaucer's "The House of Fame": The Cultural Nature of Fame

DISCUSS THE CULTURAL NATURE OF FAME AND ITS TEXTUAL EXPRESSION WITH REFERENCE TO
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: ORAL HEROIC POETRY, CHAUCER'S DEPICTION IN THE
HOUSE OF FAME AND THE MODERN CONSTRUCTION OF THE CANON OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

YOU SHOULD FOCUS YOUR ANALYSIS ON THE INTERPLAY OF ORAL AND LITERARY TRADITIONS
IN THESE CONTEXTS.


    Many critics have noted the complexities within Chaucer's The House of Fame,
in particular, the complexities between the oral and the literary. The
differences between these methods are constantly appearing; Chaucer is well
aware of rapidly changing communicative practises and contrasts the preservation
of utterance with the longevity of literary texts. He achieves this by
discussing the nature of "Fame" and the difficulties that arise from it. "Fame"
can both destroy and create. It can result in the eternal preservation of great
works and their creators. However, Chaucer is quick to note the precarious
nature of "fame" noting the unreliable process of attaining it and its
potentially momentary existence. Every creator with their respective work/s
naturally crave and desire "fame"; they want their subjects to remain fresh in
the minds of their audience. Chaucer, while neither totally praising the written
nor the oral, reveals how essentially the written word is far more likely to
become eternal as opposed to the oral. The relative "fame" of any work is
dependent on many factors. Many traditional and classical ideas result in the
formation of the English canon, yet as Chaucer indicates, the "fame" of these
works can easily become annihilated. The arrival of new readers with different
ideals and thereby changing tradition, can reject classical or "canonical" work
and their "fame" will melt into nothingness.
    Most stories, histories and legends that emerge from oral heroic poetry are
to herald the achievement of the powerful and wealthy so that their...