Astell, Ann W., and J. A. Jackson, eds.
Pittsburgh, Penn.: Duquesne University Press, 2009.
Twelve essays by various authors, plus an introduction by the editors, consider interactions among Christian allegory, talmudic hermeneutics, and the interpretive theory of Emmanuel Levinas. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for…
Pedagogy, syllabus, sample assignments, and itineraries for a semester-long, London-based excursion course on English medieval literature, including Chaucer.
Ahl, Frederick.
Andrew Galloway and R. F. Yeager, eds. Through a Classical Eye: Transcultural and Transhistorical Visions in Medieval English, Italian, and Latin Literature in Honour of Winthrop Wetherbee (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), pp. 267-86.
Citing rhymes, wordplay, puns, and anagrams, Ahl proposes that Chaucer produces the "kind of wordplay found in classical Latin poets." Ahl compares Chaucer's uses with examples from Shakespeare and Milton, showing that such wordplay in Chaucer is not…
Burrow, J. A.
Essays in Criticism 59 (2009): 22-36.
"Laus" (praise) and "vituperatio" (rendered by Chaucer as "sklaunder") find their way into medieval "ars poetriae." Using the "idiom of odium" (e.g., traditionally disreputable animals and bodily functions), Chaucer focuses on reporting angry…
Dane, Joseph A.
Studia Neophilologica 81 (2009): 45-52.
Outlines a method for describing Chaucer's verse forms as syllabic, with accent overlaid secondarily on this base. Dane argues that this method is more simple than descriptions that give priority to accent and the iamb, as well as more useful in…
Holton argues that Chaucer generally prefers direct naming techniques, but he recurrently uses "pronominatio" (i.e., epithets and related circumlocutions) when relying on Virgil as a source in HF and LGW. Also shows how Chaucer exploits the negative…
Kumamoto, Sadahiro.
Masahiro Hori, Tomoji Tabata, and Sadahiro Kumamoto, eds. Stylistic Studies of Literature: In Honour of Professor Hiroyuki Ito (New York and Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009), pp. 71-92.
Kumamoto examines eleven syntactical patterns used in conjunction with poetic enjambment. Chaucer's poetry contains more enjambment than do three anonymous romances included for comparison--and Chaucer uses enjambment more in his early poetry (BD,…
Maíz Arévalo describes the functions of rhetorical questions and assesses their uses in CT, where the device is linked to "heigh style" (Harry Bailey's term) and specific genres. Rhetorical questions are used to express and elicit emotion, to…
Berrozpe Peralta, Carlos.
[Albacete, Spain]: C. Berrozpe, 2006.
Includes a diachronic linguistic analysis--phonetic, orthographical, morphological, syntactical, lexical, and stylistic--of the description of the Reeve from GP. Traces elements backward to Old English and forward to Modern English.
Butterfield, Ardis.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 31 (2009): 25-51.
Considers the relations among French, Anglo-French, and English in the linguistic and cultural conditions of Chaucer's time. Calls for a new sensitivity to translation as process, proposes more subtle awareness of interdependent etymologies (e.g.,…
Curtis, Carl C. III.
Literature/Film Quarterly 36.1 (2008): 68-77.
Curtis summarizes the 1944 movie "A Canterbury Tale," gauging its successes and failures and commenting on the extent to which its sensibilities might be called "Chaucerian."
Davis, Paul.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Davis surveys the aesthetics and politics of works by "Augustan poet-translators," including a description of William Cartwright's comments on Francis Kynaston's translation of TC into Latin and an analysis of the modernizations and adaptations of…
Driver, Martha W.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 228-49.
Driver examines John Speed's portrait of Chaucer (first printed version, Speght 1598) as a representation of "Elizabethan nationalism" and an emblem of Chaucer's reception. She also discusses Speed's career as a cartographer and historian and…
Driver, Martha W.
Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray, eds. Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Performance and Adaptation of the Plays with Medieval Sources or Settings (Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland, 2009), pp. 140-60.
Focusing on Oberon and the mechanicals, Driver explores how medieval romances influenced Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and twentieth-century adaptations of it, observing the influences of KnT, Th, and other romances.
Driver, Martha W., and Sid Ray, eds.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009.
Thirteen essays, plus several introductory commentaries, gauge Shakespeare's uses of medieval materials and how those materials are reflected in modern stage and film adaptations. Shakespeare's "medievalism" shapes modern notions of the Middle Ages.…
Fitzgerald places Tolkien's essay on RvT (1934) in its intellectual and professional context. She explores the role of Chaucer in Tolkien's scholarship and creative works, including the allusions to Chaucer's works that appear in Tolkien's satiric…
McCabe views Spenser's alleged completion of Chaucer in "The Legend of Friendship" as a move to represent himself as a "Bonfont" rather than a "Malfont" poet.
Moll, Richard J.
Notes and Queries 254 (2008): 192-94.
An eight-line poem reminiscent of Chaucer's For in both theme and word choices survives in three copies (transcribed here), each in a different hand, written upside down on the final folio of this heraldic manuscript.
Kamath, Stephanie A. Viereck Gibbs.
Literature Compass 6 (2009): 1109-26.
Kamath surveys scholarly discussion of the influence of the "Roman de la Rose" on Middle English literature, with special attention to Chaucer's works, including Rom, as well as to those of his contemporaries and descendants.
Linder, Amnon.
Studi Medievali, 3rd ser., 18 (1977): 315-55.
Surveys the availability of manuscripts of John of Salisbury's "Policraticus" and allusions to this work among theologians, jurists, and political writers of the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. Comments on uses of the text by various…
Long, Lynne.
Ashley Chantler and Carla Dente, eds. Translation Practices: Through Language to Culture (New York and Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009), pp. 17-29.
Long assesses medieval translation practice through modern translation theory, exploring techniques of translation and the impact of translation on vernacular literatures. Includes sustained, comparative attention to Jean de Mean and Chaucer, with…
Studying how Chaucer's and Gower's uses of their sources reflect their understandings of history and their political agendas, Urban invites readers to consider parallels between the poets' uses of sources and historicist criticism. Uses various…
Wallace, David.
Andrew Galloway and R. F. Yeager, eds. Through a Classical Eye: Transcultural and Transhistorical Visions in Medieval English, Italian, and Latin Literature in Honour of Winthrop Wetherbee (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), pp. 207-22.
Wallace reviews letters between Boccaccio and Petrarch, suggesting that it is not unreasonable to "consider Petrarch and Boccaccio toiling, sparring, and loving one another in bonds suggestive of matrimony" (210). Aligns events of the Griselda tales…
Bishop, Louise M.
Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray, eds. Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Performance and Adaptation of the Plays with Medieval Sources or Settings (Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland, 2009), pp. 232-44.
Bishop argues that Paulina's "female eloquence" reflects the influence of Chaucer's Mel on Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," commenting on the fact that the folio editions of Chaucer present Mel as "The Tale of Chaucer" and observing how Richard…
Briggs, Julia Ruth.
Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray, eds. Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Performance and Adaptation of the Plays with Medieval Sources or Settings (Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland, 2009), pp. 161-77.
Briggs describes Shakespeare's "emendation and expansion" of his medieval sources in "Troilus and Cressida" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen," assessing the importance of KnT and TC in Shakespearian work. Also explores how the various medieval influences…
