Drawing on the work of Holocaust writer Primo Levi and political philosopher Giorgio Agamben McClellan introduces a critical turn in our reading of Chaucer. He argues that the unprecedented event of the Holocaust, which witnessed the total degradation and extermination of human beings, irrevocably changes how we read literature from the past. McClellan gives a thoroughgoing reading of the Man of Law's Tale, widely regarded as one of Chaucer's most difficult tales, interpreting it as a meditation on the horrors of sovereign power. He shows how Chaucer, through the figuration of Custance, dramatically depicts the destructive effects of power on the human subject. McClellan's intervention, which he calls "reading-history-as-ethical-meditation," places reception history in the context of a reception ethics and holds the promise of changing the way we read traditional texts.

Draws on prominent writers, theorists, and philosophers including Primo Levi and Giorgio Agamben

Chapter 1 Political Chaucer.- Chapter 2 The Man of Law's Tale: Sovereign Abandonment of the Subject.- Chapter 3 First Movement: Marriage and Exile.- Chapter 4 Second Movement: Destitution of the Subject.- Chapter 5 Third Movement: Return and Restitution.- Chapter 6 Interpretation: Critique of Sovereign and the Exemplarity of the Suffering Subject.- Works Cited.- Index.- Notes.