Marie De France, Dante, Or Her Lais By Chaucer

Culture, seemingly innocent on the surface, is one of the most powerful and influential means in which a society can impose on that of another. This collection of a societies practices, activities, and arts are generally viewed as the defining aspects of said groups, and generally viewed in innocence as culture is, at the surface, a reflection of that society. However, if a society with power and wealth begins to make readily available the defining pieces of their culture, such as literature and media, the following reception (rather intentional or not) is a spread of their belief system and culture in a non-violent means. Beginning in Europe, the spread of culture through writers such as Marie de France, Dante, and Chaucer began to consolidate

Hailing from France, the correlation between the development of culture and literature, in a place that would eventually epitomize Western culture and serve as the mecca for high-society and wealth, can begin to be developed. Marie writes tales of love, but tales of love that surround wealth, seduction, and adultery – tales and themes that do not parallel that of the Catholic church and will eventually be themes which develops Western culture. Furthermore, one of the major differences between Marie’s work and that of previous texts such as the Roman epics or religious foundational texts is that they tell stories that are reflective of a culture and are meant to be enjoyed, not to serve a political purpose or preserve history. These stories will resonate more as they are meant to be enjoyed and read for pleasure, and appeal to a much wider audience for they are not specific to a region or people. In writing in such a way, Marie will begin the culture development of Europe by creating stories that serve as reflection of a culture, but appeal to an audience beyond regional

In his tales, Chaucer writes satire on social status and stereotypes, and applies these stereotypes to stories that resonate with a large audience. By writing about a large group of different types of people, while being generally stereotypical, Chaucer develops a cultural narrative in and of itself. A typical reader would be able to connect to at least one of Chaucer’s characters, and at the least be able to apply the people they know to characters in the text. Additionally, as Marie de France and Dante came from cultural centers of Europe, Chaucer wrote his text in the upcoming world superpower that would become the British Empire. Furthermore, Chaucer continues Dante’s criticism of the Church in his tales, which is valuable to address for Britain would eventually serve as the center for Christian reformation. In writing in a means that invokes an audience to read for pleasure, opposed to that of purely political (a recurring theme in texts that would eventually develop the culture of the region), Chaucer’s tales would serve an important role in the development of European