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Medieval commentaries on the origin and history of language used biblical history, from Creation to the Tower of Babel, as their starting-point, and described the progressive impairment of an originally perfect language. Biblical and classical sources raised questions for both medieval poets and commentators about the nature of language, its participation in the Fall, and its possible redemption. John M. Fyler focuses on how three major poets - Chaucer, Dante, and Jean de Meun - participated in these debates about language. He offers fresh analyses of how the history of language is described and debated in the Divine Comedy, the Canterbury Tales and the Roman de la Rose. While Dante follows the Augustinian idea of the Fall and subsequent redemption of language, Jean de Meun and Chaucer are skeptical about the possibilities for linguistic redemption and resign themselves, at least half-comically, to the linguistic implications of the Fall and the declining world.

Language and languages --- Langage et langues --- History --- Histoire --- Chaucer, Geoffrey, --- Dante Alighieri, --- Jean, --- Bible. --- Criticism, interpretation, etc. --- Historical linguistics --- Diachronic linguistics --- Dynamic linguistics --- Evolutionary linguistics --- Language and history --- Linguistics --- Chaucer, Jeffrey, --- Chʻiao-sou, Chieh-fu-lei, --- Chieh-fu-lei Chʻiao-sou, --- Choser, Dzheffri, --- Choser, Zheoffreĭ, --- Cosvr, Jvoffrvi, --- Tishūsar, Zhiyūfrī, --- Dante Alighieri --- Alighieri, Dante --- Dante, Alighieri --- Alih'eri, Dante --- Chopinel, Jean, --- Clopinel, Jean, --- De Meun, Jean, --- Jean Chopinel de Meun, --- Jean Clopinel de Meun, --- Jean de Meun, --- Jehan, --- Meun, Jean de, --- Clopinel, J. --- Gen 1 (Book of the Old Testament) --- Genesis 1 (Book of the Old Testament) --- Alihii︠e︡ri, Dante, --- Alaghieri, Dante, --- Aldigeri, Dante, --- Aligeri, Dante, --- Allighieri, Dante, --- Aligerius, Dantes, --- Aligheri, Dante, --- Alighieri, Dante, --- Alleghieri, Dante, --- Durante Alighieri, --- Tan-ting, --- Danding, --- Dāntī Alījyīrī, --- Alīyīrī, Dāntī, --- Dante Alih'i︠e︡ri, --- Dante, --- Dant Aligīeri, --- Aligīeri, Dant, --- Dantte, --- Tantte, --- Dantis Alagherius, --- Danthe Alighieri, --- Alighieri, Danthe, --- Dante Alig'i︠e︡ri, --- Alig'i︠e︡ri, Dante, --- Ailígiéirí, Dainté, --- Dantė Aligjeris, --- Dānté ʼAligiyéri, --- Makākavi Tāntē, --- Tāntē Alikiyari, --- Alikiyari, Tāntē, --- אליגיירי דנטי --- אליגירי, דנטי --- דאנטי אליגיירי --- דאנטי אליגיירי, --- דאנט, --- דנטה אליגיירי, --- דנטה אליגירי, --- דנטי אליגיארי, --- דנטי אליגירי, --- دانتى ألغييري --- دانتي أليجيري،, --- ダンテ, --- Данте Аліґгіері, --- Historical linguistics. --- Arts and Humanities --- Literature

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What does it mean to speak for nature? Contemporary environmental critics warn that giving a voice to nonhuman nature reduces it to a mere echo of our own needs and desires; they caution that it is a perverse form of anthropocentrism. And yet nature's voice proved a powerful and durable ethical tool for premodern writers, many of whom used it to explore what it meant to be an embodied creature or to ask whether human experience is independent of the natural world in which it is forged.The history of the late medieval period can be retold as the story of how nature gained an authoritative voice only to lose it again at the onset of modernity. This distinctive voice, Kellie Robertson argues, emerged from a novel historical confluence of physics and fiction-writing. Natural philosophers and poets shared a language for talking about physical inclination, the inherent desire to pursue the good that was found in all things living and nonliving. Moreover, both natural philosophers and poets believed that representing the visible world was a problem of morality rather than mere description. Based on readings of academic commentaries and scientific treatises as well as popular allegorical poetry, Nature Speaks contends that controversy over Aristotle's natural philosophy gave birth to a philosophical poetics that sought to understand the extent to which the human will was necessarily determined by the same forces that shaped the rest of the material world.Modern disciplinary divisions have largely discouraged shared imaginative responses to this problem among the contemporary sciences and humanities. Robertson demonstrates that this earlier worldview can offer an alternative model of human-nonhuman complementarity, one premised neither on compulsory human exceptionalism nor on the simple reduction of one category to the other. Most important, Nature Speaks assesses what is gained and what is lost when nature's voice goes silent.

Nature in literature. --- Poetry, Medieval --- English literature --- Philosophy of nature in literature. --- Literature and science --- Religion and science --- Nature in poetry --- Christianity and science --- Geology --- Geology and religion --- Science --- Science and religion --- Poetry and science --- Science and literature --- Science and poetry --- Science and the humanities --- History and criticism. --- History. --- Religious aspects --- Aristotle --- Jean, --- Guillaume, --- Chaucer, Geoffrey, --- Lydgate, John, --- Lidgate, John --- Lydgate, John --- Lidgate, Iohn --- Monk of Bury --- Monke of Burie --- Monk of Bery --- Chaucer, Jeffrey, --- Chʻiao-sou, Chieh-fu-lei, --- Chieh-fu-lei Chʻiao-sou, --- Choser, Dzheffri, --- Choser, Zheoffreĭ, --- Cosvr, Jvoffrvi, --- Tishūsar, Zhiyūfrī, --- Deguileville, Guillaume de, --- Guillaume de Deguilleville, --- Guillelmo, --- Guillermo, --- William, --- Digulleville, Guillaume de, --- Guilleuila, Guillelmo de, --- Guillevila, Guillelmo de, --- Guilleville, Guillaume de, --- Gralleville, Guillermo de, --- Guillermus, --- Chopinel, Jean, --- Clopinel, Jean, --- De Meun, Jean, --- Jean Chopinel de Meun, --- Jean Clopinel de Meun, --- Jean de Meun, --- Jehan, --- Meun, Jean de, --- Clopinel, J. --- Aristoteles --- Aristote --- Arisṭāṭṭil --- Aristo, --- Aristotel --- Aristotele --- Aristóteles, --- Aristòtil --- Aristotile --- Arisṭū --- Arisṭūṭālīs --- Arisutoteresu --- Arystoteles --- Ya-li-shih-to-te --- Ya-li-ssu-to-te --- Yalishiduode --- Yalisiduode --- Ἀριστοτέλης --- Αριστοτέλης --- Аристотел --- ארסטו --- אריםטו --- אריסטו --- אריסטוטלס --- אריסטוטלוס --- אריסטוטליס --- أرسطاطاليس --- أرسططاليس --- أرسطو --- أرسطوطالس --- أرسطوطاليس --- ابن رشد --- اريسطو --- Pseudo Aristotele --- Pseudo-Aristotle --- アリストテレス --- Influence. --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Knowledge --- Science. --- Romaunt of the Rose.