The lack of interest in the Shipman’s tale: Chaucer and the social theory of the gift

Authors

Robert EpsteinFollow

Document Type

Article

Article Version

Publisher's PDF

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

An essay on the lack of interest in the "The Shipman's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer and the social theory of the gift of sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu is presented. It explores Bourdieu's theory of the gift in which all exchanges are fundamentally agonistic and motivated by individual profit and the criticism of economic anthropologist David Graeber's against such theory. It also examines Bourdieu's emphasis that conscious motivation is irrelevant.

Comments

Copyright 2015 University of Chicago Press

The final publisher PDF has been archived here with permission from the copyright holder.

Publication Title

Modern Philology

Repository Citation

Epstein, Robert, "The lack of interest in the Shipman’s tale: Chaucer and the social theory of the gift" (2015). English Faculty Publications. 119.
https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/english-facultypubs/119

Published Citation

Epstein, Robert. "The lack of interest in the Shipman’s tale: Chaucer and the social theory of the gift." Modern Philology 113, no. 1 (2015): 27-48. DOI: 10.1086/680728.

DOI

10.1086/680728

Peer Reviewed