Spencer, Matthew, Barbara Bordalejo, Peter Robinson, and Christopher J. Howe
Literary and Linguistic Computing 18 (2003): 407-22.
Drawing techniques from biology, the authors gauge the reliability of several aspects of textual stemmata: whether separate sections of a given text have separate histories, the quantity of text necessary for a reliable stemma, the levels of…
Olson, Mary C.
William K. Finley and Joseph Rosenblum, eds. Chaucer Illustrated: Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures (SAC 27 [2005], no. 105), pp. 1-35.
Olson describes the visual features of the Ellesmere manuscript and assesses its illustrations as schematic, metonymic, and stereotypic-representations of character types rather than realizations of fictional individuals. The juxtaposition of Th and…
Olson, Mary C.
New York and London: Routledge, 2003
Proposes and applies several "reading strategies" for understanding the relationships between word and image in several Old English manuscripts and the Ellesmere manuscript of CT.
Wein, Jake Milgram
William K. Finley and Joseph Rosenblum, eds. Chaucer Illustrated: Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures (New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll; London: British Library, 2003), pp. 311-25.
Wein examines and appreciates the ways Kent's illustrations of the Canterbury pilgrims broke with formal and interpretive traditions. The essay focuses on the aesthetic impact of the lavish 1930 limited edition (published by Covici-Friede), later…
Wetherbee, Winthrop.
Alan T. Gaylord, ed. Essays on the Art of Chaucer's Verse (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 283-95.
The "seeming eccentricities" in the verse of BD are an index to the poem's "complex intention." Close reading demonstrates how variations in verse communicate "the delicate psychological process the poem describes."
Wilcockson, Colin.
Review of English Studies 54 : 308-12, 2003.
The subtlety of Arveragus's use of the second-person singular pronoun (FranT 5.1479-86) invites readers' sympathy. Here and in ClT, Chaucer adapts his source by varying the register between the formal (plural) and familiar (singular) forms of the…
Wolfe, Matthew C.
Charlotte Spivack and Christine Herold, eds. Archetypal Readings of Medieval Literature (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 2002), pp. 181-202.
The Jungian notion of synchronicity--the significant coincidence of psychological and physical states--helps one understand medieval notions of astrology, mysticism, and the supernatural. Wolfe comments on the meeting of Palamon and Arcite in KnT,…
To understand Chaucer as a political court poet and a philosophical poet, we must read his prose as well as his poetry. Wong considers variations between Bo and its Boethian source, Mel as a model for how Chaucer treats his sources, Astr as a source…
Wong, Jennifer.
Carmina Philosophiae 11: 93-116, 2002.
In mood and details, Form Age and For enable us to see Chaucer's pessimistic attitudes toward "Boethian concerns." Truth, Gent, and Sted also emphasize the wretchedness of the present world rather than recognition of divine order and the consolation…
Describes a freshman writing course that focuses on late-medieval social history, structured by means of GP and eight of the tales in CT. Includes a complete syllabus, writing exercise, and supplemental information.
Yiavis, Kostas.
Gramma: Journal of Theory and Criticism 9: 13-29, 2001.
Chaucer's depreciation of the father figure (biological, theological, literary predecessor) enables him to conceive of poetry separate from the needs for stable interpretation and didactic meaning. Throughout his corpus, his "polyvocal…
Zeitoun studies dreams and daydreams in TC, especially daydreaming in Book 1, Criseyde's dream of the eagle, and Troilus's dream of the boar. Violence in the poem has less to do with war than with the internal states of the characters; these states…
Argues that spoken recordings of Chaucer's works (and other Middle English writings) are useful in the classroom. Surveys critical attitudes toward such recordings and comments on the products produced by the Chaucer Studio.
Reed, Teresa P.
Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003.
Examines allusions to the Virgin Mary in connection to five literary characters: Chaucer's Constance and Wife of Bath, the medical woman of the English "Trotula," Saint Margaret of Antioch, and the "Pearl" maiden. Chapter 1 focuses on parallels…
Richardson surveys various interpretations of the Old Man in PardT. Concentrates on the imagery of Mother Earth and of suicide, arguing that the Old Man can be seen as the Pardoner's undying soul.
Robertson, Elizabeth.
Sharon Farmer and Carol Braun Pasternack, eds. Gender and Difference in the Middle Ages. Medieval Cultures, no. 32 (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), pp. 322-51.
A revised version of the author's essay, "The 'Elvyssh' Power of Constance: Christian Feminism in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Man of Law's Tale" (SAC 23 [2001], pp. 143-80).
Robertson, Elizabeth.
Wendy Harding, ed. Drama, Narrative and Poetry in The Canterbury Tales (Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 2003), pp. 175-93.
Robertson considers KnT, WBT, and FranT in the light of contemporary marital law, Christian doctrine, and the question of mutual consent to marriage. Chaucer's profound interest in the legitimacy of the female subject is a subset of his larger…
Robinson, Duncan.
William K. Finley and Joseph Rosenblum, eds. Chaucer Illustrated: Five Hundred Years of the Canterbury Tales in Pictures (New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll; London: British Library, 2003), pp. 274-310.
The essay describes the personal and social conditions that led to the 1896 production of the Kelmscott Chaucer by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Robinson compares preliminary sketches and final woodcut illustrations. Adapted from Robinson's…
The Canterbury Tales Project takes up where Rickert and Manly left off, presenting extant texts in ways that are accessible to and useful for all readers. Since the manuscripts derive from those copied by a select group of scribes a few years after…
Rogers, William, and Paul Dower.
Robert G. Benson and Susan J. Ridyard, eds. New Readings of Chaucer's Poetry (Rochester, N.Y., and Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 119-38.
Rogers and Dower review considerations of money and its circulation in ShT, questioning whether Chaucer praises or blames money or whether the topic was as mixed for him as it is today.
Rosenblum, Joseph, with William K. Finley.
Chaucer Review 38: 140-57, 2003.
The artists of the Ellesmere manuscript carefully deviated from Chaucer's descriptions of the pilgrims to deflect the satire from the upper and upper-middle classes to the lower orders. When Chaucer's own descriptions were ambiguous, the artists…
Rosenthal, Joel T.
University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003.
Provides close historical analysis of three groups of archives: proofs of age from the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV, depositions from the Scrope-Grosvenor controversy, and Margaret Paston's letters. Discussion of the depositions includes…
Rubin, Miri.
Tjitske Akkerman and Siep Stuurman, eds. Perspectives on Feminist Political Thought in European History: From the Middle Ages to the Present (London and New York: Routledge, 1998), pp. 34-49.
Mentions NPT and Rom in a survey of late-medieval "pervasive understandings" of women and femininity. Finds places within this survey for instances of "feminist moments" and the "dialects within which they were set."
