Browse Items (16346 total)

BD is an apprentice work whose chief interest is in rhetoric and ornamentation. PF, built on neo-platonic musical principles, shows growth in command of structure. The short poems reveal Chaucer's interest in prosodic experiment. TC is a great…

A Marxist approach to form, structure, and character shows broad dichotomies in Chaucer's art; e.g., between city and country, Gothic and modernist narratives, and worldy and otherworldly philosophies. From the last divergence derives the major…

In TC, PF, HF, and CT the narrator/author split permits a veiled and implicit expression of judgment at the beginning to be suspended until the end.

A reading of Chaucer's dream visions as a genre reveal a controlling tension between the narrator's awareness of the demands of Christian doctrine and his human compassion for those enduring the rigors of life on earth. He is sympathetic to human…

One of the stumbling blocks to an unbiased reading of Chaucer is the prevalence of "humanistic" criticism, which is "intra-literary" and a kind of "anti-literature." The necessary corrective is "'meta'-humanistic" criticism, which strives "not to…

The Devonshire MS. (c. 1450-60) of CT, purchased at Christie's on June 6, 1974, by an American dealer, had been noted as having a miniature full-length picture of Chaucer. The miniature is of a man seated on a flowery bank pointing to a gilt purse…

The Chaucer portraits in Hoccleve and TC are iconographic, not realistic, stressing Chaucer's role as artist-philosopher and teacher of poets and princes alike.

The famous "Troilus" Frontispiece has created an image of Chaucer's audience as the royal court with Richard and Ann. But such identification in an unrealistic picture, clearly a presentation-picture variant, is impossible. Chaucer's actual audience…

In the drawing of the Canterbury Pilgrims, Blake's antithetical method, employing ironic juxtaposition and counterpoint, invites the viewer to participate in the exercise of the Divine Vision of forgiveness by distinguishing "States from Individuals…

In Chaucer's age, the image of the butterfly primarily suggested the self-destructive nature of human sinfulness. This aspect of butterfly symbolism occurs in MkT (B2.3978-81), MerT (E.303-04), and possibly ShT (B2.1360-61).

The conception of CT is an inherent conflict between the pilgrimage to a martyr's shrine in Canterbury and the game of storytelling to be consummated by a feast in Southwark. The development of the collection reveals movement away from Canterbury…

Chaucer does not attempt to work within the framework of such established literary forms as romance and fabliau. The flaws in the genre approach become evident when the tales are judged from the broader perspective of medieval rhetoric and poetic.

There is a parallel between Harry's rule in CT and medieval political theory. Harry progresses from the role of egocentric tyrant ruling amidst chaos to that of a more or less generous public servant ruling amidst social harmony.

The portraits in GP cannot be at once individual and typical. The details cannot be taken as individual because they have been determined by the general conception. Recognition of the reality of the universal is necessary for an understanding of the…

Travelling levels status distinctions and puts the pilgrims at the threshold stage in a rite of passage. Their "ritual elder" is the Host; their enterprise, a restructuring of social conventions: love, rank, "gentillesse", vulgarity, and money. …

The rhetorical and narrative conventions used by Chaucer in his saintly tales reveal him an accomplished hagiographer. An analysis of the narrator's rhetoric in describing the characters in GP produces a better understanding of the relation between…

A feminist analysis of the "Marriage Group" reveals that Chaucer draws his characterization of women largely from medieval stereotypes. He is unable to go beyond a Griselda (Virgin Mary) or a Dame Alisoun (Eve) to create a female "both virtuous and…

Contrary to Kittredge's view that FrT and SumT are "merely comic interludes" in the marriage group, the Prologues and Tales of the Wife, Friar, and Summoner share a common concern, the debate on "experience" vs. "auctoritee." In questions of…

Because Dame Prudence in Mel embodies the qualities her name implies--reason, intellect, circumspection, providence, docility, and caution--she is a model of medieval female virtue.

Despite his comic depictions of star-obsessed humanity, Chaucer respected astrology; but he did not find astrological determinism absolute. In KnT Palamon gains Emily by enduring the tests of Saturn, who is more neutral.

There is a tradition which views the knight's pursuit of love as an inversion of responsibility to God and to society. In CT, the Knight embodies spiritual and social duty whereas the Squire represents a subversion of proper knightly functions.

In KnT Theseus usually acts honorably according to medieval military code. He gradually discovers, however, the insufficiency of such a code as he gains insight into Boethian philosophy.

"Pearl" is a divine comedy which views earthly matters from above with tolerance. In KnT Chaucer eliminates the flight to the heavens found in "Teseida"; the perspective of Theseus is earthly but still tolerant. In TC, by contrast, Troilus' ascent…

Drawing on exegetical tradition, Chaucer effectively combines piety and irreverence in his handling of biblical themes and characters. In Mel and MLT he presents Old Testament platitudes and stereotypes as practical moral guides, while in MilT and…

Chaucer's unprecedented use of the woman baring her buttocks to the lover's kiss significantly emphasizes both the active potential of the woman, the rejection of courtly traditions,and the association of food with sex. The addition of her fart…