Abstract
Two pivotal scenes in Gower’s Confessio Amantis—the first expressing a fear of forgetting past sins and the second identifying the moment after confession when recollection of sins is no longer necessary—frame the narrative of the fictitious confession. Amans, the penitent, is concerned that he will be unable to remember his sins and, thus, be prevented from confessing properly. Genius, his confessor, answers Amans’ concern by exploring both Amans’ memory of former sins as well as his own memory of exempla and stories derived from the past. The exploration continues until Amans is allowed to forget his sins as he instead recollects his own personal truth—that he has reached too advanced of an age for earthly love.
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Tracy, K.G. (2017). Gower: Confessio Amantis and the Fear of Forgetting. In: Memory and Confession in Middle English Literature. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55675-8_4
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