An introduction to the study of proverbs (paremiology), covering definition and classification, several examples over time, scholarly approaches, and analyses of the contexts in which proverbs appear (e.g., song, advertising, cartoons, and…
Matsuda, Takami, Richard A. Linenthal, and John Scahill, eds.
Cambridge: Brewer; Tokyo : Yushodo, 2004.
Thirty-eight essays and two commemorations celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Takamiya, focusing on "medieval manuscripts and early printed books, Arthurian literature, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century medievalism." Many of the essays pertain to…
Lynch, Kathryn L.
Richard F. Gyug, ed. Medieval Cultures in Contact. Fordham Series in Medieval Studies, no. 1 (New York: Fordham University Press, 2003), pp. 213-22.
Lynch describes how a team-taught, cross-cultural course in European and Islamic literatures discovers dimensions in the literatures, including SqT, FranT, and MLT.
Lavezzo, Kathy, ed.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.
An introduction by the editor and ten essays by various authors consider the presence and nature of nationalism in medieval England. Medieval scholarly tradition and political structures anticipate the nation state and the nationalist discourses of…
Klitgard, Ebbe.
Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 47 (2003): 101-13.
Assesses the "linguistic, communicative and narrative markers of performativity" in BD, HF, and PF, arguing that Chaucer composed them for live performance but also with an eye to repeated performance or reading.
Kline, Daniel T., ed.
New York and London : Routledge, 2003.
Sixteen essays by various authors, most of them addressing individual texts as literature written for children--for example, "The Babees Book," "Sir Gowther," Aelfric's "Colloquy," and selections from the "Gesta Romanorum" and from Gower's "Confessio…
Kern-Stahler, Annette.
Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang, 2002.
Examines interior space in late medieval English architecture, manuscript illumination, and literature, focusing on homes, churches, and their imagery as they helped to shape feminine identity.
Green, Richard Firth, and Linne R. Mooney, eds.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Ten essays by various authors, a forward and an introduction, a bibliography of Rigg's publications, and a subject index. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer; search for Interstices under Alternative Title..
Gray, Douglas.
Richard Firth Green and Linne R. Mooney, eds. Interstices: Studies in Middle English and Anglo-Latin Texts in Honour of A. G. Rigg (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), pp. 122-36.
Gray comments on the cultural value and functions of proverbs and their kin (adages, aphorisms, etc.), focusing on two "clusters" of proverbs: the "proverb war" of WBP and the complex and intricate uses of proverbs by Pandarus, Criseyde, and the…
A New Historicist assessment of Middle English mirrors for princes: Chaucer's Mel and works by Trevisa, Hoccleve, Lydgate and Burgh, Hays, Ashby, and Gower. These texts construct an ideal king and normative social values and-set against the reign and…
Fradenburg, L. O. Aranye.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 26 (2004): 1-27.
Fradenburg contemplates medieval romance as a product of desire and a producer of jouissance. Considers the functions and values of wonder; the enjoyment and signification of romance; and the relationships of wonder to "vernacularity," technology,…
An introduction to critical approaches to Middle English literature, featuring twenty-two reprinted examples of critical methods by various authors. Chapters include authorship; textual form; genre; language, style and rhetoric; allegory;…
Cooper, Helen.
New York and Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2004.
The motifs of medieval romances continued to be familiar in Tudor-Stuart England, although their meanings and the ways they were understood changed in time. Cooper traces a broad variety of romance motifs--quest, pilgrimage, encounters with fairies,…
Camargo, Martin.
Scott D. Troyan, ed. Medieval Rhetoric: A Casebook (New York and London: Routldge, 2004), pp. 91-107.
Camargo explores how time functions rhetorically in Chaucer's works, discussing duration as a feature of style (amplification and abbreviation), time as an attribute of action (time as cause) and person (time of birth as character), and several…
Børch, Marianne, ed.
Odense : University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004.
Ten essays by various authors on medieval verbal and visual rhetoric, with recurrent attention to authority, glossing, and vernacularity. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Text and Voice under Alternative Title.
Barasch, Frances K.
English Literary Renaissance 34.2 (2004): 157-75.
Barasch traces puppetry from Socrates to the Renaissance, arguing that Elizabethan puppet theatre conveyed popular learning. Chaucer's descriptions of the pilgrim Geoffrey as a "popet" (7.701-2) and of Alison as a "popelote" (MilT 1.3254) may reflect…
Astell, Ann W.
Scott D. Troyan, ed. Medieval Rhetoric: A Casebook (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 41-62.
Assesses medieval notions of the utility of books, comparing modern and medieval theoretical discussions. Astell's essay focuses on the symbolic exchange value of books and the "antisacrificial rhetorical strategies" for offering books as gifts to…
Amtower, Laurel, and Dorothea Kehler, eds.
Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2003.
Eleven essays by various authors on topics ranging from Anglo-Norman literature to early modern portraiture and drama. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, of this volume.
Akbari, Suzanne Conklin.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Tracks developments in the theory and practice of personification allegory in medieval literature (especially the "Roman de la Rose," works by Dante, and works by Chaucer) in relation to optical theory and epistemology. As confidence in the…
Schooler, Victoria D.
Dissertation Abstracts International 65 (2004): 1773A
Schooler examines WBPT, KnT, and TC, using speech-act theory to reveal Chaucer's attitudes toward prayer as personal utterance rather than rote activity.
Rudanko, Juhani.
Journal of Historical Pragmatics 5.1 (2004): 137-58
As speech acts, threats are usually both conditional and commisive; i.e., they depend on an inferred promise, and they commit the speaker to some future course of action. Threats in Chaucer's works are usually modulated by the additional element of…
Rothwell, W[illiam].
Modern Language Review 99 (2004): 313-27.
Henry of Lancaster is usually treated in the context of medieval English history; Chaucer, of medieval English literature. Better understanding of the Anglo-French language and culture familiar to both men helps us appreciate Anglo-French and assess…
