Hamada, Satomi.
Studies in Medieval Language and Literature 32 (2017): 17-35.
Places CT in the transitional period from oral to literal culture, and argues that the change of vocabulary from "herken" in Th's initial sections to "listen" in its third fitt indicates different functions of these sections in Chaucer's parody of…
Bradley, Nancy Warren.
Christianity and Literature 66.3 (2017): 386-403.
Contends that although "Pearl" and PrPT treat the Eucharist as orthodox, they nonetheless evoke religious debates concerning Lollardy and, relatedly, continental female mysticism. Argues that both the works feminize sacramental work, preach in ways…
Argues that the use of Dante's "Paradiso" 53 in the initial presentation of faith in PrT reflects Chaucer's sophisticated engagement with the ways humans try to articulate transcendent truth.
Dahood, Roger.
Susan Powell, ed. Saints and Cults in Medieval England: Proceedings of the 2015 Harlaxton Symposium, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 27 (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2017), pp. 140–55.
Claims that the clergeon in PrT invokes Hugh of Lincoln, one of a number of Christian boys purportedly crucified by Jews in mockery of Christ's Passion. Addresses why the victims in such stories are boys, not adults as Jesus was when he was…
Blurton, Heather, and Hannah Johnson.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017.
Explores the anti-Semitism of PrT, producing "a discussion animated by the ways in which antisemitism has emerged as the problematic that organizes scholarly response," and resists dismissing or excusing prejudice and hate in PrT. Tracks history of…
Peksen, Azime.
Mehmet Ali Celikel and Baysar Taniyan, eds. English Studies: New Perspectives (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2015), pp. 36-45.
Analyzes how May in MerT and the wife in ShT "evade the oppressions" of marriage and "subvert their subjugation through negotiating and challenging the mercantile narration." Each female protagonist "generates her own meanings and pleasure."
Item not seen. WorldCat records indicate that this facsimile of Dove's musical score includes a libretto by Alasdair Middleton based on ShT, and Italian singing translation by Adam Pollock. Also published as the third part of Dove's trilogy:…
Smith, D. Vance.
Minnesota Review 80 (2013): 131-44.
Argues that in PardT "allegory and form straddle the boundaries of finitude in order to raise the question of how finitude is constituted," thereby sharing or anticipating several concerns and questions raised by object-oriented, materialist…
Linkinen, Tom.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015.
Includes a chapter, "Sharing Laughter" (pp. 205-32), that identifies examples from late medieval art and literature where laughter constitutes "moral censorship" of same-sex desire or actions, then focuses on the Pardoner; his relation with the…
Treats the Old Man of PardT as a figure of the Wandering Jew, exploring relations between the figure and the transtemporal materiality of relics, and linking it with "other explicit and implicit references to Jews" in the depiction of the Pardoner…
da Costa, Alex.
Critical Survey 29.3 (2017): 27-47.
Reconsiders the possibility that the Pardoner is a woman passing as a man in PardT, which raises anxieties about the relation of outward appearance and inner substance. These parallel anxieties about the authenticity of relics and the validity of…
Spearing, A. C.
Digital Philology 4.1 (2015): 59-105.
Questions the "narrator theory of narration," critiquing the "concept of the internal, potentially unreliable narrator"; examining "the history of the term narrator"; studying "the theories of narration implied by scribal annotations in some medieval…
Schiff, Randy P.
Randy P. Schiff and Joseph Taylor, eds. The Politics of Ecology: Land, Life, and Law in Medieval Britain (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2016), pp. 82-103.
Argues that the narrator's comments on poachers and governesses in PhyT are not digressive, but part of a broader "biopolitical" concern that "clearly condemns the parental absolutism that leads to Virginius's murder of his daughter" and aptly…
Ponce, Timothy.
Sigma Tau Delta Review 13 (2016): 25-31.
Traces the Jewish and Christian understandings of crucifixion, arguing that the image underlies the "didactic nature" of PhyT where "repeated images of injustice" are "placed in dialogue with the symbolism of the cross," reminding the reader of…
Sweeney, Michelle.
Essays in Medieval Studies 30 (2015): 165-78.
Examines how "knights are reformed" and some are "even saved by the women who tempt them" in several medieval romances, including Chretien's "Knight of the Cart"; Marie de France's "Lanval"; "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"; and FranT, where Dorigen…
Includes discussion of FranT (pp. 282–93), tabulating historical astronomical data and arguing that Chaucer "used the configuration of the Sun and Moon in December 1340 as the inspiration for the time of year [late December] and for the central…
McGraw, Matthew Theismann,
Dissertation Abstracts International A75.05 (2014): n.p.
Includes discussion of FranT as one among several examples of late medieval English romances that explore "noble identity and chivalric values" and use magic to place these values in starker relief than can be accomplished realistically.
Lesler, Rachel.
Sigma Tau Delta Review 13 (2016): 40-47.
Explores the alignment of "trouthe" and freedom in FranT, particularly as they relate to gendered honor, arguing that Dorigen's efforts to honor her marital "trouthe" limit her freedom.
Coats, Kaitlin.
Sigma Tau Delta Review 11 (2014): 90-99.
Considers the ambivalent role of magic in FranT, arguing that vacillation "between belief and skepticism, truth and illusion, nature and sorcery" help Chaucer to create "a divide between perception and reality" and undermine the "purported moral…
Christopher, Joe R.
Salwa Khoddam, Mark R. Hall, and Jason Fisher, eds. C. S. Lewis and the Inklings: Reflections on Faith, Imagination, and Modern Technology (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2015), pp. 121-32.
Explores why C. S. Lewis chose not to discuss FranT in his "Allegory of Love," arguing that Lewis made the decision because he wanted to attribute the "final defeat of courtly love by the romantic conception of marriage" to Edmund Spenser in his…
Bonazzi, Nicola.
Heliotropia: Forum for Boccaccio Research and Interpretation 11 (2014): 181-97.
Traces the development of the relations between illusion and courtliness from Boccaccio to James Lasdun's story in the "The Siege," including a discussion of FranT that focuses on the "demande d'amour" that concludes the Tale.
Argues that two of Chaucer's emphases in SqT modify source material from Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy" and thereby undo the "binary divide between humankind and animal kinds." The "falcon's species vacillation" and Canace's "cross-species…
Wicher, Andrzej.
Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture 3 (2013): 42-57.
Discusses MerT; Boccaccio's "Decameron," 7.9; and "Sir Orfeo" as "slightly different" varieties of the enchanted-tree motif, emphasizing their structural similarities, their uses of enchantment, and the relative happiness of their endings.
