Turner, Joseph
Chaucer Review 55, no. 3 (2020): 298-316.
Argues that "through the Nun's Priest's portion of Fragment VII Chaucer navigates much of the theories of characterization found in the late medieval rhetorical treatises known as the 'artes poetriae,' or the arts of poetry," and offers "a critique…
Tracks the popularity of a passage about shoes from Rom in the nineteenth-century popular press, demonstrating how the passage forges a connection between Victorian and medieval England by using Chaucer as a supporter of Victorian interests and…
Machan, Tim William.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 3 (2022): 317-26.
Traces the definition and history of "knarre' in GP, cataloguing evidence for both a Dutch and Old Norse etymology. Offers some considerations for the role of the lexicographer and historian in general by addressing the particular history and meaning…
Explores Chaucer's depictions of women in LGW and Christine de Pizan's illustration of women in Cité, demonstrating how "recent work in cognitive science, which studies how humans create categories," shows that "both Chaucer and Christine are…
Irvin, Matthew W.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 4 (2020): 379-96.
Examines pity and the construction of pity in KnT in particular to show how Chaucer's use of and changes to the "Teseida "produce a desire for female autonomy that doesn't threaten male patriarchy.
Discusses the wives of CT, and, in particular, Constance in MLT, suggesting that "unruly" wives are generally English and that virtuous ones are continental. Traces how Chaucer's use of these good wives offers space for him to rethink England, the…
Burger, Glenn D.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 4 (2020): 422-40.
Traces the struggles of Dorigen in FranT as a kind of conduct literature for wives, as Dorigen's pain in Arveragus's absence is linked to "two contemporary French conduct texts--'Le Livre du chevalier de la Tour Landry' (1371) and 'Le Mesnagier de…
Traces the figure of the "sursanure" in FranT, demonstrating that this superficially healed wound is an apt metaphor for Chaucer/s soft or "sunken" sources.
Matlock, Wendy A.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 4 (2020): 462-83.
Positions Mel and ManT as "vivid examples of Chaucer's polyphonic authority that highlight the rich network of gendered speech constituting his mature voice." Argues that Chaucer's ventriloquized women in Mel and ManT translate continental sources…
Hinnie, Lucy R.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 4 (2020): 484-99.
Traces how "Chaucer is invoked and"utilized in the 1568 Bannatyne Manuscript," suggesting that the manuscript participates in the "querelle des femmes" and "interrogates the idea that Chaucer becomes a 'straw man' for the writers included in the…
Suggests that Robert Holcot's commentary on the Book of Wisdom is the immediate source of HF, 991–1017 and 1259–70, and ParsT, 603–7, describing the authors' shared skepticism about the "limits of human knowledge" and discussing specific echoes…
Lynch, Kathryn L.
Chaucer Review 56, no. 2 (2021): 95–118.
Examines background of Katherine Lee Bates, author of "America the Beautiful," who was a medievalist before turning to poetry and American literary studies. Brings together her career as an Americanist and poet with her background as a medievalist,…
Considers John Metham's "sonnet," which presents the first sonnet-like form in English. While disputing that Metham's poem should be viewed as the first sonnet in English, its similarities and interpretations help to advance considerations about form…
Argues that Chaucerian biographers and critics have both been horrified by the rape of Cecily Chaumpaigne and depicted it to reenforce Chaucer's masculinity. Traces how these critics and authors have fashioned Chaumpaigne into a courtly lady, whose…
Irvin, Matthew W.
Chaucer Review 56.1 (2021): 1-32.
Using Michel de Certeau's idea of the tactic, argues that the Monk represents the monastic estate, and that he uses tragedies to attack the Host, representative of the city, and the Knight, representative of the nobility. Explores the Monk's own…
Examines Chaucer's limited use of "blew"/"blue" in depictions of color, focusing on the phrase "teres blewe" in Mars, 8. Notes that the connotation of "blue" with melancholy surfaces later, and traces Chaucer's usage of "blewe" to its Gallo-Romance…
Focuses on Ovid's post-exilic poem "Ibis," now nearly forgotten in scholarship but once central to medieval readers. Catalogues the extant manuscripts of Ibis and compares this to the higher number of mentions in manuscript inventories, before…
Contextualizes FranT using Hannah Arendt's "The Human Condition," and argues that the tale represents another moment in CT where journeys end abruptly before the destination is reached. Considers how the tale functions as "a parable of how household…
Examines LGW as a poetic work that invites criticism as a function of how it is structured. Looks in depth at Alceste and her efforts in the poem, reappraising how she achieves success with the God of Love.
Thompson, Kenneth J.
Chaucer Review 56.3 (2021): 280-95.
Focuses on the Yeoman of GP, suggesting that the figure may have been based on Richard II's archers of the crown. Examines the life of Thomas Forster of Drybek, one of these archers, catalogues biographical information about him, and suggests he is a…
Beidler, Peter G.
Chaucer Review 56.3 (2021): 296-308.
References a previous article from thirty-five years ago that discussed various translations of important passages from Chaucer and appraised them. As a companion piece, considers ten verse translations of the opening lines of CT. Concludes with an…
Baechle, Sarah, and Carissa M. Harris.
Chaucer Review 56.4 (2021): 311-21.
Introduces a special edition centered on Chaucerian scholarship and its relationship to power, empire, class, race, and gender, suggesting how scholars can navigate the toxic nature of Chaucer and his writings. Considers how scholars can "write about…
Examines the trauma of sexual violence, focusing on Chaucer's rape of Cecily Chaumpaigne, contextualizing the study of trauma through contemporary theorists Cathy Caruth and Ruth Leys along with Astr. Considers "the relationship between Chaucer's…
Flannery, Mary C.
Chaucer Review 56.4 (2021): 360-77.
Discusses the long-standing view of Chaucer as a fun, perhaps obscene writer, suggesting that readers "are invested in protecting their ability to enjoy Chaucer freely." References Kate Manne's notion of "himpathy," or the "excessive sympathy" felt…
