Browse Items (16377 total)

Explores poetic speech acts (following the lead of J. L. Austin), treating Chaucer's dedication of his book in TC 5.1856-62 as an exemplary type of performative speech act--"the Chaucer-Type"--characterized by having three explicit constitutive…

Examines how Chaucer's early poems (i.e., those written before 1380) engage the conventional forms, techniques, and themes of French and Italian models, enriching them via "humour and realism" and applying them to "new uses." His innovative…

Applies the techniques of "close reading" or "practical criticism" to works of medieval literature, adjusting the method to accord with medieval literary and linguistic conventions, especially oral recitation. Examines passages from "Piers Plowman,"…

Surveys Chaucer's various metaphoric uses of animals, from "simple and conventional ideas about animals to throw light on man" to more elaborated or developed characterizations through more detailed comparisons.

Adduces "popular lore" to show that Chaucer's references to a hare and a goat in the GP description of the Pardoner (1.684 and 688)--corroborated by other details from the actions and descriptions of the Pardoner--characterize him as a "testicular…

Explores associative and metaphoric links between Chaucer's Miller (GP and MilP), the devil, and Pilate, who was "traditionally an agent of the devil."

Surveys Chaucer's uses of thematic and stylistic contrast, antithesis, and contention, treating them not as examples of a divided mind "but rather of a mind most aesthetically aware how best to state what is experienced most intensely." Draws…

Argues that by "idealizing" reality "into unreality" KnT opens the "question of appearance and reality," a recurrent concern throughout CT which is resolved only in ParsT.

Explores the "shock of contrast" between the rejection of worldly love at the end of TC and the celebration of love found in earlier sections of the poem. The address to "yonge, fresshe folks" (5.1835) is consistent with the protagonists' youthful…

Examines the tragic, comic, and ironic features of TC, comparing it with MkT in the genre of tragedy, and assessing its tragic, comic, tragicomic, and ironic aspects of theme, situation, characterization, and dialogue.

Argues that MerT "characterizes the Merchant" consistently, attributing several "awkward" passages in the Tale to the Merchant's engagement with an ongoing "debate" about marriage and considering his "pretensions" and "intense personal involvement"…

Contrasts the "quasi-heretical," "so-called Augustinian" views of sex in marriage as always sinful with those of Thomas Aquinas and others who treat sexual love in marriage as sinless when consistent with "amicitia" (friendship) and reason, arguing…

Tabulates and analyzes Chaucer's use of function words before nouns and pronouns, showing that his usage "resembles in the main that of modern English," although in at least one respect more similar to "modern vulgar English than modern standard…

Argues that in ClT Chaucer "has successfully humanized the psychological motivation of both Walter and Griselda," de-emphasizing the "supernatural" aspects of the characterizations found in analogous narratives, and depicting his protagonists with…

Scans two lines of GP (49 and 173), "usually felt to be awkward," arguing that in light of comparable Middle English examples the syllable counts and stress patterns of these lines are consistent with the "iambic-decasyllabic theory."

Reviews attempts to clarify Chaucer's reference to Morpheus's companion "Eclympasteyr," found in BD line 167 and also found in Froissart's "Paradys d'Amour" as "Enclimpostair." Argues on linguistic and literary grounds that the name in "plain…

Argues that in PardPT the Pardoner "is parodying himself--deliberately magnifying his character and conduct in order to portray himself as a monster of evil" exaggerating so that the other pilgrims will interpret him comically, as a "charming rogue,"…

Demonstrates the "stylistic virtuosity" of NPT, consistent with its "multiple perspective," commenting on the plain style of the widow frame, "cinematic" details in descriptions, the quality and comedy of direct dialogue, the "graver rhetoric of the…

Argues that children in Chaucer's works are generally depicted with "tender pity," discussing narratives in which children have relatively prominent roles: MLT, MkT, ClT, PhyT, and PrT.

Identifies "traces of the primitive folk tale" that underlie the Cupid and Psyche myth and WBT, and maintains Chaucer's familiarity with some version of the myth. Compares and contrasts aspects of the Tale with its English analogues, and argues that…

Defends the artistic qualities of Thomas Hoccleve as a poet, acknowledging his medieval conventionality, but emphasizing his originality in adapting conventions and source material, the competence of his meter, and the autobiographical elements of…

Describes Chaucer's life and works, with an introduction to historical backgrounds, a chronology of events, a summary of critical reception, a bibliography for further reading, and an index. The biography emphasizes dates and events, and the survey…

Summarizes each of the "comic" tales of CT, with appreciative, inferential, scene-by-scene commentary on techniques of characterization, situations, and enlivening details that make the Tales "amusing." Essentially farcical, the action of MilT…

Describes how Chaucer's "mirth reveals his moral premises" and conveys joy throughout his poetic corpus, explaining how the early dream poems, in varying degrees, communicate the progress of the comic narrators toward greater moral and philosophic…

Reads Chaucer's summary of Virgil's "Aeneid" in Book 1 of HF as comic--a parody of several practices of "exegetical grammar," including translation, "dictiones ethicae" (soliloquies), paraphrase, and moral interpretation. The purpose of the parody is…