Surveys representations of sexual violence as both gender oppression and means to self-awareness between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries in England, discussing WBPT and Mel, among other texts.
Dennis, Erin N.
Bruce E. Brandt and Michael S. Nagy, eds. Proceedings of the 14th Northern Plains Conference on Earlier British Literature, April 7-8, 2006 (Brookings, S.Dak.: English Department, South Dakota State University, 2006), pp. 107-23.
Dennis explores how WBP and WBT affirm and challenge the patriarchal assumptions of medieval literary and social traditions.
Croft, Steven, ed.
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
A school-text Middle English edition of WBPT and the GP description of the Wife, with notes and glosses after the text, along with comments on critical approaches and contexts and on Chaucer's language and pronunciation; pedagogical activities and…
Craun, Edwin D.
Edwin D. Craun, ed. The Hands of the Tongue: Essays on Deviant Speech (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007), pp. 33-60.
Reads the Wife's comments on her constellation (WBP 3.609-23) in light of late medieval pastoral commentary on astral determinism as an excuse for sin. The Wife mocks male-authored confessional speech but embraces male-authored astrological discourse…
Carter, Susan.
S. Elizabeth Passmore and Susan Carter, eds. The English "Loathly Lady" Tales: Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007), pp. 83-99.
Because the loathly lady in WBT is not enchanted but is a shape-shifter under her own power, she likely is not virginal. Carter explores the implications of this likelihood, as well as parallel concerns in WBT and several analogues.
Carrillo Linares, María José.
Brian J. Worsfold, ed. Women Ageing Through Literature and Experience (Lleida and Catalunya, Spain: Department of English and Linguistics, University of Lleida, 2005), pp. 21-30.
Depictions of female and male aging in WBT and MerT reflect the reality that human beings wish to remain desirable "in spite of advanced aging."
Caldwell, Ellen M.
S. Elizabeth Passmore and Susan Carter, eds. The English "Loathly Lady" Tales: Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007), pp. 235-56.
Loathly lady tales "reveal the consequences" for women of "ungendered" transgressive behavior: the lady "enjoys more power" when she performs roles counter to her biological gender, and she loses the power when she subsides into feminine roles. When…
Borysławski, Rafał.
Marcin Krygier and Liliana Sikorska, eds. To Make His Englissh Sweete upon His Tonge (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 121-33.
Discusses how sheela-na-gig carvings share appearance and function with loathly lady figures in Middle English literature, including the one found in WBT.
Bobac examines the "social life of medieval justice as discursively constituted," considering WBT as an example of a text that explores the "theory and purpose of the punishments for rape."
Biebel-Stanley, Elizabeth M.
S. Elizabeth Passmore and Susan Carter, eds. The English "Loathly Lady" Tales: Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 2007), pp. 73-82.
Rooted in Irish analogues, the sovereignty theme is anchored in the queen figure in WBT. The theme reflects "women's integral role in governance," a "wishful vision of a movement toward more egalitarian society," and Anne of Bohemia's role in the…
Warner, Lawrence.
Laura L. Howes, ed. Place, Space, and Landscape in Medieval Narrative (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007), pp. 43-59.
Warner examines affiliations of the London Church of St. Thomas of Acre with mercantile interests that, in turn, help to clarify features of MLT, including its concerns with merchants, with the Crusades, and with legal discourse. MLT also explores…
Uses MLT, among other works, to show that in Middle English romance, with its limited expression of characters' inner lives, identity is expressed and revealed through "external signs," outward behavior, and immutable "key characteristics."
Heinzelman, Susan Sage.
Susan Sage Heinzelman. Representing Justice: Stories of Law and Literature, Parts 1 and 2. The Great Courses (Chantilly, Va.: Teaching Company, 2006), part 1, disc 3, lecture 6; 30 min.
Audio recording (on CD) of a lecture about the "inextricability" of religious and secular law in Chaucer's age as reflected in PardT, ParsT, and especially MLT. Heinzelman contrasts material and spiritual wealth in PardT and ParsT and explores the…
Goldstein considers Custance of MLT and Alisoun of WBP in relation to the Augustinian theology of perfection, particularly in light of late fourteenth-century adaptations of Augustine, both orthodox and heterodox. MLT exemplifies the deterministic…
Forkin, Thomas Carney.
Essays in Medieval Studies 24 (2007): 31-41.
Close reading of CkT, of descriptions of Roger the Cook in CT, and of relevant late fourteenth-century laws and statutes reveals that Chaucer's powers of observation extend to the lower levels of society and the workings of London's "underworld."
Crawford discusses the unfinished CkT in relation to the Tale of Gamelyn; their thematic associations; connections to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381; who added the Tale of Gamelyn to CT; and why it was inserted right after CkT.
Benson, C. David.
Essays in Medieval Studies 24 (2007): 1-20.
Benson describes the very different views of London produced by Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, and Lydgate, as well as the depictions in William FitzStephen's "Description of London" (1174) and "London Lickpenny" (fifteenth-century). These representations…
By "acknowledging and exploiting the affections of [its] female characters," RvT "fashions a masculine collective." By excluding Symkyn from this collective, the Tale demonstrates that "cherl" identity after the uprising of 1381 was ethically and…
Nolan, Maura.
Paul Strohm, ed. Middle English (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 207-21.
Nolan argues that the description of Alison in MilT is Chaucer's means to "stage an investigation or exploration of the relationship of beauty to individual perspectives . . . and the idea of a universal aesthetic." The passage also confronts the…
Chaucer's special contribution to the fabliau genre is the design whereby apparently disconnected, often spontaneous plot incidents are suddenly "knit up"--that is, perceived by readers as belonging to a providential master plan. Although MilT is the…
Beidler, Peter G.
Sandra M. Hordis and Paul Hardwick, eds. Medieval English Comedy (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007), pp. 195-208.
Beidler compares and contrasts MilT with its likely source, the Middle Dutch "Hiele van Beersele." Of the two, MilT provokes greater laughter because it is more plausible, a result of more carefully deployed details.
Allen, Valerie, ed.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
A school-text Middle English edition of MilPT and the GP description of the Miller, with notes, a running narrative summary, and facing-page glosses. Accompanied by commentary on several topics (Chaucer's language, town versus gown in Oxford,…
Sutton, John William.
Lewiston, N.Y.: b Mellen, 2007.
Gauges the degree of "heroism" in death scenes in a variety of narratives, considering in individual chapters "The Battle of Maldon," "Beowulf" and "Judith," Layamon's "Brut," the "Alliterative Morte Arthure," the death of Arcite in KnT, the…
Sancery, Arlette.
Martine Yvernault and Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet, eds. Frères et sœurs: Les liens adelphiques dans l'Occident antique et médiéval (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007), pp. 221-28.
Focuses on the meaning of brotherhood in "Ipomadon," "Octavian," and Chaucer's KnT.
