Goodman, Jennifer R.
James Muldoon, ed. Varieties of Religious Conversion in the Middle Ages (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997), pp. 115-28.
Examines MLT as one of several historical and literary accounts of princesses who marry husbands of a different religion and either convert themselves or persuade their husbands to convert. In addition to Constance, Goodman considers accounts of…
Dugas, Don-John.
Modern Philology 95 (1997): 27-43.
Additions to MLT suggest Chaucer's concern with aristocratic power, particularly with "translatio imperii." Considered in the "context of the second decade of Richard II's reign," MLT "subtly legitimizes kingly authority."
Dauby, Helene.
Marcel Faure, ed. Felonie, trahison, reniements au moyen age. Actes du troiseme colloque international de Montpellier Universite Paul-Valery, 24-26 novembre 1995. Cahiers du CRISIMA (Centre de Recherche sur l'Imaginaire et la Societe au Moyen Age), no. 3 (Montpellier: Publications de l'Universite Paul-Valery, 1997), pp. 432-39.
Compares acts of treachery in the tales of Constance by Trevet, Gower, and Chaucer, showing that MLT has a feminist point of view and a religious stance. The liveliness of the debate scenes in MLT may result from the occupation of the teller.
Burns, Nicholas.
Joan F. Hallisey and Mary-Anne Vetterling, eds. Proceedings: Northeast Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature (Weston, Mass.: Regis College, [1996]), pp. 19-24.
Unlike modern thinkers who pose Islam as an "Other" in opposition to Christianity, Dante and Chaucer depict the continuities of the two religions. In "Divine Comedy," Dante disapproves of Islam but incorporates it into his cosmic scheme. In MLT,…
Astell, Ann W.
Studies in Philology 94 (1997): 395-416.
Examines Chaucer's two brief but similar references to the "St. Anne Trinity," a portrayal of Mary, Jesus, and St. Anne in the cultural context of fourteenth-century England. Concludes that the references in MLT and SNT represent two sides of a…
Gower's "Confessio Amantis" presents Genius's tales as morally simple, although the incest stories stimulate readers to ask moral questions. In MLT, Chaucer represents his narrator as misreading Gower, affecting a simplistically moral stance and…
Applying A. J. Greimas's systems to MilT leaves Alison in the role of passive object. Claude Bremond's model discloses a more active Alison as she learns about seduction and dissimulation, which are overvalued in the world of MilT.
Burger, Glenn.
Jeffrey Cohen and Bonnie Wheeler, eds. Becoming Male in the Middle Ages (New York and London: Garland, 1997), pp. 480-99.
MilT reproduces the "sadism" of KnT in its assertion of heteronormativity but simultaneously resists this sadism. In the bedroom-window scene, gender is loosened and "queered," enabling readers to escape from the hegemony of masculinist and…
Pearcy's structural approach enables us to recognize the generic markers of fabliau in nonfabliau tales by identifying dupers, dupes, and misinterpretations of signs. Two episodes in KnT reflect fabliau structures: Arcite's reading of Palamon's…
Valentine, Virginia Walker.
Virginia Walker Valentine. Chaucer's Knight: A Man Ther Was (Tampa, Fla.: Axelrod, 1994), pp. 1-23.
Argues from evidence in KnT and GP that Chaucer presents not an idealized figure but a complex, realistic character. Valentine treats the narrative and rhetorical features of KnT and its relations with Boccaccio's "Teseida" as evidence of the…
Jungman, Robert E.
Explicator 55:4 (1997): 190-92.
KnT 2681-82 do not (as Wolfgang Rudat supposed) echo Virgil's "Aeneid" 4.569-79 but instead adapt Juvenal's "Tenth Satire" 72-73 to identify Emily with changeable fortune.
Greenwood, M. K. Smolenska.
Guy Bourquin, ed. Hier et aujourd'hui: Points de vue sur le moyen age anglais (Nancy: Association des Medievistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Superieur, 1997),: pp. 45-55.
KnT creates puzzling effects. Chaucer's subversion of several issues (genre, nobility, love, wisdom) highlights their absurdity.
Fradenburg, Louise O.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 27 (1997): 47-75.
The logic of sacrifice (in particular, the sacrifice of the subject, Arcite) that permeates KnT produces a "jouissance," which the discourse of charity attempts to disguise.
Comments on the GP sketch of the Knight, Gower's "To King Henry the Fourth," and the Wilton Diptych as evidence of English support for Philippe de Mezieres's promotion of the 1396 crusade against the Turks, perhaps evidence of English participation…
Watts, William H.
Hugo Keiper, Richard J. Utz, and Cristoph Bode, eds. Nominalism and Literary Discourse: New Perspectives (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1997), pp. 145-55,
Discusses the problematic nature of relating late-medieval nominalism to Chaucer's literary texts. Chaucer's representation of philosophizing clerks suggests that he took a dim view of such figures of contemporary life, whom he tended to portray as…
Vila de la Cruz, Maria Purificacion.
Margarita Gimenez Bon and Vickie Olsen, eds. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval Language and Literature (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Dpto. Filologia Inglesa, 1997), pp. 275-84.
Discusses the women in CT as emotional and intellectual reflections of male characters.
Reads CT as Chaucer's effort to "see, speak and write" into fiction the bond of love that is to him an "ontological fact of creation." The road to Canterbury is a metaphor of salvation; the pilgrims and their "Tales" are links in the spiritual chain…
Sola Buil, Ricardo J.
Margarita Gimenez Bon and Vickie Olsen, eds. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval Language and Literature (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Dpto. Filologia Inglesa, 1997), pp. 338-45.
Explores Chaucer's use of parody and manipulation of narrative tradition to develop realistic characters or "subjectivities" in CT.
Ramirez Arlandi, Juan.
Margarita Gimenez Bon and Vickie Olsen, eds. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval Language and Literature. (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Dpto. Filologia Inglesa, 1997): pp. 247-52.
Investigates varying presentations of marriage in the Marriage Group of CT, concluding that the "true idea of marriage is the result of combining the features that different characters exhibit."
Powell, Brian.
Maria Isabel Toro Pascua, ed. Actas del III Congreso de la Asociacion Hispanica de Literatura Medieval (Salamanca, 3 al 6 de octubre de 1989), II. 2 vols. (Salamanca: Biblioteca Espanola del Siglo XV, Departamento de Literatura Espanola e Hispanoamericana, 1994), pp. 789-96.
Compares narrative aspects of CT and Juan Ruiz's "Libro de buen amor," especially their uses of irony and an author-narrator; also explores relations between the Prioress and Ruiz's Dona Garoca.
Pearsall, Derek.
A. J. Minnis, Charlotte C. Morse, and Thorlac Turville-Petre, eds. Essays on Ricardian Literature: In Honour of J. A. Burrow (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), pp. 23-38.
Addresses issues of the order of CT and, following the discussion of Charles A. Owen, Jr. (1977), argues that ParsT was once intended to complete the work. However, Chaucer revised his plan when he "evolved a new and impossibly grandiose scheme for…
Olivares Merino, Eugenio M.
Juan Paredes, ed. Medioevo y literatura, III: Actas del V Congreso de la Asociacion Hispanica de Literatura Medieval (Granada, 27 septiembre-1 octubre 1993), 4 vols. (Granada, Nicaragua: University of Granada Press, 1995), pp. 491-97.
Comments on Chaucer's description of Pedro I of Spain in MkT, and on similarities between CT and de Ayala's "Rimado."
