Ebook: Writing Old Age and Impairments in Late Medieval England

The old speaker in Middle English literature often claims to be impaired because of age. This stunning admission is very often followed by actions and narration which directly contradict it, as speakers, such as the Reeve in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or Amans in Gower's Confessio Amantis, proceed to perform even as they protest and claim impairments and debility. More than simply the modesty topos, this claim and contradiction exists, "Staves and Stanzas" argues, as prosthesis: old age brings with it debility and inability but discussing those age-related impairments both augments the old, impaired body, simultaneously undercutting and emphasizing the existence of bodily impairments. This language of prosthesis becomes a fitting metaphor for the old works these old speakers use to fashion narrative, which exist as incomplete yet powerful sources.