Browse Items (16470 total)

Argues that the "moral lesson" of MerT is "self-deception and spiritual blindness" which result from January's efforts to "create a paradise on earth."

Comments on the anti-Semitism of PrT and suggests that it does not lessen the beauty of the tale.

Aligns the five fingers of lechery (ParsT 10. 852-64) with the conventions of courtly love and those of mystical love, using them to assess several lovers of CT (Palamon and Arcite of KnT, Nicholas and Absalon of MilT, and Aurelius of FranT).

Comments on medieval knighthood and the appropriateness of KnT to the Knight.

Introductory comments on late-medieval musical notation, melody and harmony, rhythm and meter, instruments, and forms, with notes for an accompanying tape recording.

Surveys medieval attitudes towards women, with comments on Chaucer's depictions.

Twenty-one papers on CT by various authors. For individual essays, search for Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute under Alternative Title.

Surveys the narrative techniques of the GP as they set up and anticipate those of the entire CT: the suggestiveness of pilgrimage and frame narrative, the impressionistic variety of the pilgrims and their juxtapositions, the naïve but subjective…

Sketches a range of evaluative criteria (moral, social, hedonistic, materialistic, and artistic) to explore how in literature--and in the GP in particular--"moral judgements are largely subverted by artistic judgements," in part the result of the…

Comments on several stylistic device of characterization in GP and the effects they produce: the Knight is earnest by obsolete, and spiritually ambiguous; the Parson, an exaggerated stereotype, cut off from people by lack of realistic details; the…

Gauges how subject, author, and reader "interact with varying degrees of subtlety in the GP descriptions of the pilgrims: the "snapshot" (Yeoman), idealization (Parson), caricature (Summoner), balance between ideal and caricature (Wife of Bath), and…

Argues that the balanced opposition between the sacred and the secular in the opening and closing sections of the GP encourages readers to be tolerant and cautious in judgment.

Explicates the Shipman's knife in GP, and explores how similar details unfold to characterize the Canterbury pilgrims. Details of "aggression and assertion" recur in the descriptions, as do commercial concerns.

Considers three groups of ecclesiastical figures in CT, categorizing them by religious role and descriptive technique: 1) members of religious orders (Prioress, Monk, and Friar), who the narrator "damns by faint praise and irony"; 2) servants of the…

Explicates numerous details of GP to demonstrate Chaucer's techniques of characterization. Includes significant attention to the Wife of Bath, the Physician, the Host, and others.

Describes the narrator of the GP as "naïve but all-seeing," used variably by Chaucer to guide reader response and provoke unsettled reactions. Not wholly consistent, the narrator is a device that evokes "complex, contradictory attitudes" that seem…

Interprets the interplay of literal and symbolic implications in GP, reading pilgrimage as a "metaphor for a society in the act of 'being itself'." The poem "declares its intention to deal less with what 'should be' in society than what is actually…

Ten essays concerning GP addressed to a student audience, each essay followed by brief "Afterthoughts," intended for purposes of study and review. The volume also contains a "Practical Guide" on writing student essays (pp. 121-37). For individual…

Pedagogical materials for high school teachers, including ten lessons on CT, topics for assignments, handouts, report forms, and instructions on how to use these materials.

Classroom text of GP in Middle English with facing-page notes, study-guide Introduction, a brief glossary, and brief bibliography. The Introduction includes commentary on Chaucer's life, the "Framework" of CT, "how to read" Chaucer, and "Further…

Item not seeen. WorldCat records indicate that this Chinese translation of CT was reprinted multiple times.

Surveys English literature from the Old English period to "Post-War and Post-Modern Literature," including a chronology and a comprehensive index. The section on Chaucer (pp. 55-63) emphasizes his "delight in the concept of cosmic, natural, and human…

NPT, adapted and illustrated for juvenile audience.

Selections of comic verse in English, from Chaucer to Glyn Maxwell. The Chaucer selection (pp. 1-4) includes the descriptions of the Monk, Summoner, and Pardoner from the GP.

Comments generally on Chaucer's scientific knowledge, explains his use and understanding of "Aristotelian cosmology," and describes the astronomical and astrological systems that underlie the details and structures of many of his works. Assumes that…