Selected Publications

The Angelus • May-June 2007

AMU professor Williams publishes book on Chaucer by Jessica Barrows

This spring, Sapientia Press published a new book about one of English literature's most important figures by one of Ave Maria University's most distinguished professors.

AMU's academic publishing house introduced Language Redeemed:Chaucer's Mature Poetry by AMU visiting professor of literature Dr. David Williams in March. The purpose of the book, according to Williams, is "to convince readers that Chaucer was a realist; that he believed universals-such as justice and goodness-have real existence."

Williams' book is the latest installment in the Sapientia Classics: Literature series, introductory textbooks dealing with the greatest figures in Western literature.

"When we invited Professor Williams to contribute to the series, we expected that his enormous erudition would enable him to produce a volume of unusually high quality," said Dr. Matthew Levering, associate professor of theology and co-editor of Sapientia Press. "He has most certainly done so. Language Redeemed: Chaucer's MaturePoetry enables students to understand Chaucer's poetry in the Catholic context in which the poetry was in fact written."

Williams explained that he intended to examine Chaucer's poetry in light of the poet's Catholic response to the nominalism that was prevalent in the Middle Ages.

"My purpose was to situate Chaucer in the most important intellectual debate that, in my opinion, has ever taken place in the Western World: whether certain abstract concepts, such as justice or the good, have an existence and reality in and of themselves, or are merely ideas created by humans from their several individual experiences of just acts and expressions of goodness," Williams said.

According to Joseph Pearce, AMU writer-in-residence and co-editor of Sapientia Press, Williams' discussion of Chaucer underscores the significance the poet's work maintains even centuries after his death.

"[Williams] considers Chaucer's work in relation to the poet's own Catholic orthodoxy and in the light of the poet's orthodox response to the proto-relativism of nominalism," Pearce explained. "Paradoxically, Chaucer's riposte to the nominalists reminds us that his work is very much alive and relevant today, enabling us to read or re-read Troilus and Cressida and the Canterbury Tales with fresh eyes."

Language Redeemed: Chaucer's Mature Poetry is just the latest of Williams' many published works, which cover a wide variety of literary subjects including Old and Middle English literature, Beowulf, Alexander the Great and Flannery O'Connor. After receiving his bachelor's degree at Boston University, Williams did graduate work at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies-where, he said, "I finally discovered the life of the mind"-and has master's and doctoral degrees in English at the University of Toronto. In addition to publishing widely, Williams has spent his career teaching English at McGill University in Montreal. In 2004, he came on as visiting professor at AMU, where he teaches literature classes during the spring semester and enjoys "the luxury of small classes and delightful, enthusiastic students."

Levering believes that the breadth of Williams' scholarship and his many years of teaching experience not only result in a masterfully researched and written book on Chaucer, but benefit the growing reputation of Sapientia Press and the university at large.

"As the author of numerous other important works, Professor Williams has produced an excellent book on Chaucer that will benefit his readers as well as contribute to the growing international reputation of Sapientia Press and Ave Maria University," Levering said.

To order Language Redeemed: Chaucer's Mature Poetry or the any other Sapientia Press book, visit http://4what.avemaria.edu/shop/ or call toll-free (888) 343-8607.

Jessica Barrows is an AMU student reporter.