Genius and the practice of ethical reading

Abstract

There has been a tendency in Gower scholarship to emphasize what Genius is not doing in the Confessio Amantis: the stories he does not tell, the sins he fails to discuss, and the interpretations he does not pursue. Some critics view Genius's supposed deficiencies as intentional failings designed by Gower to challenge his readers; still, these readings are centered on absence rather than presence. This paper offers a new interpretation of Genius's role in the Confessio, and, in particular, of Genius's use of classical exempla, by arguing that the absence of allegorized versions of these tales is, in fact, the result of a conscious decision to use an alternate method of reading ---ethical reading- rather than allegorical interpretation. Instead of merely appropriating or desecularizing "old bokes," the process of ethical reading preserves the status of secular texts while reframing them to make them morally useful for new generations of readers.