Parables of Freedom and Necessity The Rising Levels of Secularization as Manifested in Two Literary Works

Abstract

Epilogue
Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Frankeleyn’s Tale” and Bertold Brecht’s
The Exception and the Rule seem to have very little in common. Chaucer’s
medieval narrative poem tries to follow the norms of its genre and
fulfiil the reader’s expectations, whereas Brecht’s modernist experimental
play violates many of the rules of drama laid down by Aristotle and other
classical critics. It deliberately shocks the reader out of any facile identification
with the characters as well as any willing suspension of disbelief.
But despite their many obvious differences, this study argues that their
similarities are quite relevant and significant. Both works deal with the
themes of human freedom, moral responsibility, and ability to transcend.
These are among the major themes of literature throughout time-but
they have acquired particular poignancy in our modern time with the rise
and gradual unfolding of what I term the “Paradigmatic sequence of secularization.”
Since the terms “paradigm” and “secularism” are already
quite problematic, and to talk of “a paradigmatic sequence of secularization”
is even more so, some kind of clarification and even redefinition is
in order.
Paradigms
When a critic singles out two literary works for comparison, the
choice is not guided by some universally established objective rules, but
rather dictated by a certain set of assumptions, norms, criteria, biases, and
so on. When he/she engages in the critical act itself, pointing out structural
and thematic relations (of similarity and dissimilarity), he/she does ...