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Article: Chaucer's tomb: the politics of reburial. (medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer)
- Article from:
- Medium Aevum
- Article date:
- March 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The place where someone is buried may or may not be important, but the place where someone is reburied is always important, not of course in this latter case to the person reburied, but to the reburier. The movement of someone's remains constitutes a significant political statement, or is a form of propaganda, or a way of shaping public opinion; the disinterment and abuse of a corpse is a similarly significant political act. In the case of the movement of a saint's or saintly person's remains, reburial sanctifies a new site and makes it a worthy place of pilgrimage: the body, or the body-part, is the star attraction. Where a number of appropriate sites are available, or are ...