Browse Items (16379 total)

Comments on the presence and treatments of friars in three Middle English writers, including discussion of Chaucer's depictions of friars and the Friar in CT and his uses of anti-mendicant literature as source material.

Uses several medieval court cases and posthumanist perspective to examine medieval notions of "corporeal property," arguing that, by comparing property relations to a "spousal and familial one," the Wife of Bath persistently destabilizes the…

Reassesses gender violence in WBPT in terms of René Girard's theory of mimesis that complicates surface oppositions and suggests that we can read the Wife of Bath as parallel to the rapist-knight rather than to the loathly lady. The mirroring of…

Reads various adaptations of WBPT in light of the time in which each of the individual "iterations" of the Wife was produced, from scribal adjustments in manuscripts, to ballad versions, to John Gay's dramatic adaptation and William Blake's…

Compares and contrasts attitudes toward age and aging in WBT, Gower's tale of Florent, and "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle," considering these attitudes in light of late medieval social perspectives on age and marriage that were affected…

Focuses on the relationship between WBT and its analogue, "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle," to show how such a study traces cultural shifts.

Reads the rape motif of WBT against the background, context, and language of the Statute of Rapes (1382), arguing that the tale uses "narrative strategies made possible in late-medieval regulation of 'raptus'" to present "the realities of gendered…

Translates into modern English verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) the initial tale of Farid Al-Din Attar's story collection "Elahi-Nameh" (Persian, twelfth century), an analogue to MLT.

Uses MLT and Trevet's version of the Constance story to show how Gower "infused" his Constance story in the "Confessio Amantis" with "pastoral rhetoric in order to transform Constance into a representative of Charity" and thereby offer an "'exemplum…

Examines the functions and placement of the northern dialects in RvT, and argues that they reflect the Reeve's negative feeling toward the clergy. In Japanese.

Presents the first of two successive articles on RvT and its analogues. Claims that "The Mylner of Abyngton" has not drawn as much critical attention as it deserves. Compares "The Mylner of Abyngton" with three continental analogues and discusses…

Explains that imitations of northern pronunciations in RvT, preserved in the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts, provide evidence that the shift of "a" from /a:/ to /ɛ:/ was underway in northern England during the fourteenth century. Notes similar…

Analyzes the two houses in RvT and MilT and contends that Chaucer's precise description of architectural setting displays how architecture shaped medieval social life and communicated social and class satire.

Argues that MilT and RvT "revise the image of masculine chivalry constructed in" KnT, the first offering a model of "physical 'cherl' masculinity," the second "an image of masculinity that prizes internal desire over physical bravado." Through their…

Describes the cultural landscape that underlies John's exhortation to Nicholas in MilT to "Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun!" (1.3478 ff.), showing that John's extended and naïve address resonates with the "affective piety" encouraged in the…

Assesses "why puns matter so much" in MilT, both "speaker puns" and "recipient puns," exploring the yoked concerns of language and intention, and commenting on secular and religious punning in medieval linguistic, artistic, rhetorical, and lexical…

Argues that the depictions of Emelye and Diana in KnT result from the Knight's objectification, ventriloquism, and patriarchal ideals.

Analyzes the list of trees in KnT and discusses as counterpoint the lists in PF. Contends that KnT refigures the trope of epic listing to insert a tragic tone into Chaucer's retelling of Boccaccio's "Teseida."

Describes Grosseteste's notion of universals and Wyclif's treatment of it; then argues that KnT and MilT are, respectively, philosophically realist and antirealist, focusing on the First Mover speech in KnT as an example of Grosseteste's…

Argues that "two medieval methods of memorializing" are in tension in KnT: "celebration" of chivalric loss, and Boethian remembrance. Theseus's admonitions to remember Arcite "leave little room" for "healthy" mourning and reveal the limits of…

An art-edition of KnT, with wood-cut style illustrations accompanying the text, followed by a summary of the tale, and comments on its sources, date, genre, structure, themes, style, prosody, historical context, and previous illustrations in…

Describes the idea of the "servant-become-warrior" in the Japanese "Tale of Heike" and in KnT, commenting on the etymological roots of "samurai" and "knight" and exploring how concepts of determinism, service, and Foucauldian disciplinary power…

Examines GP portrait of the Monk, and his obvious infractions against monastic norms and regulations, in light of Giorgio Agamben's "The Highest Property: Monastic Rules and Form-of-Life" (2011), stressing not only the Monk's disdain for monastic…

Reflects on how GP yields patterns for writers to emulate, since the first line concerns the cycle of nature, patterns of order and hierarchy, and the theme of regeneration, in a syntactically complicated periodic sentence.

Analyzes SNT, MLT, and ClT to find forms of women's authority and determine how women's authority is constructed. Argues that women in these tales possess "charismatic, positional, and spiritual" authority as a result of their confrontations with…