Caitlin Kelly ABSTRACT

“ 'I nolde no beest for me were deed': Chaucer’s Vegan Poetics”

Caitlin Kelly, Magdalen College, Oxford, UK

 

In English Food: A People’s History  Diane Purkiss declares “the silence around food in all mainstream history obscures and even denies the full identity of the human”. In the wake of the climate crisis, it is becoming increasingly apparent that such silence additionally poses an existential threat; we must critically examine and moderate our diets to avoid ecological collapse. Vegan theory has cemented the academy’s role in this task. Emelia Quinn and Laura Wright, for example, have unearthed a “latent canon of literary veganisms.” showcasing rich (pre)histories of environmentally conscious and cruelty-free eating. To date, however, these efforts have solely concentrated on antiquarian and post-seventeenth century texts. In parallel, medieval studies has chronically neglected early vegetarian / veganism despite recent ecocritical and animal turns, fuelling hypercarnivorous mischaracterisations of pre-modern societies and literatures. Yet constrained pre-industrial agricultural conditions alongside deeply embedded traditions of lay and monastic fasting meant the mass of medieval English society followed a predominantly plant-based diet and conscientious dietary philosophy starkly resonant with modern ethical and environmental veganism.

 

This paper bridges these lacunae and traces the proto-vegan sympathies of the Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400). Concentrating on The Canterbury Tales and “The Former Age,” it unveils Chaucer’s interests in Graeco-Roman and Christian models of vegetarianism alongside his commitment to exposing the fragile boundary between man and animal, guilt and gratification, consumer and consumed. The paper additionally considers how his deep sensitivity to animal life was simultaneously nurtured by and in conflict with his employment in the wool and forestry industries. The paper thus explores how Chaucer responded to the environmental upheaval and growing disputes over ethical consumption witnessed across the 14th century – crises and conflicts eerily reminiscent of those faced today – and relocates a forgotten heritage of critical and compassionate eating in the medieval West.

 

Keywords: Medieval, Fasting, Religion, Posthumanism, Environmentalism