Browse Items (16472 total)

Assesses astrological imagery in works by Chaucer, Lydgate, Henryson, Lyly, Greene, and Spenser, including discussion of how the zodiacal signs of Aries, Taurus, and Gemini suggest "symbolic re-enactment of sin" and provide "ironic commentary" in…

Explores how "multiple modes of discourse" about the body--medical, philosophical, religious, and courtly--underlie works by Chaucer, Dunbar, and Henryson, arguing that CT, through its multiplicity of voices, "demonstrates fundamental medieval…

Includes discussion of Chaucer's PrT as well as Aeschylus's "Suppliants" and works by Phillis Wheatley, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin.

Explores the functions and implications of the black rocks in FranT both as a symbol of universal evil and as a narrative device, arguing that the rocks have particularly rich and pervasive significations, anticipating the postmodern device of a…

Argues that the WBT is appropriate to the "Marcien" Wife, who represents a rising social class that challenges the "old courtly privilege." This class challenge parallels the Wife's sexual challenge, and her speech on "gentilesse"--a "complaint…

Argues that the Franklin as narrator presents the characters in FranT as both "living people and as standard types from courtly romance," not worrying excessively about consistency of characterization and revealing more wisdom than we expect from…

Item not seen. WorldCat record indicates that this is a translation of Astro into Italian, with an introduction. The publisher's information indicates that the volume includes an essay by Paolo Rossi on the place of the astrolabe in the history of…

Includes three essays that pertain to Chaucer, one previously printed. For the two new essays, search for Studies in Medieval Renaissance American Literature under Alternative Title.

Clarifies--etymologically and musicologically--that "cordes" mentioned in HF 696 refers to instrumental strings, not to musical chords. the latter being anachronistic in Chaucer's era.

Surveys English literature in Britain from Chaucer to ca. 1970, with the opening section (pp. 13-72) covering Chaucer's life, works, audience and reception, and his cultural environment--both historical and literary. Pays particular attention to CT,…

Suggests that texts like PrT might be taught by examining their presentation of non-followers of Christianity as monsters, an alternative to post-colonial approaches.

Phonological/transformational investigation of multisyllabic rhymes, including discussion of the first 61 lines of BD and the role of final-'e.'

Includes papers from the eighth International Conference on Middle English, University of Murcia, Spain, 2013. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Approaches to Middle English: Variation, Contact and Change under Alternative Title.

Includes five essays that pertain to Chaucer; for the individual essays search for Medieval English Literary and Cultural Studies under Alternative Title.

Places HF in the intellectual and philosophical contexts of its era, particularly the tradition of Boethius and Wyclif, arguing that Chaucer supports the existence of universals.

The 1368 date for the death of Blanche of Lancaster in J. J. N. Palmer's article ChauR 8 (1974) is probably correct, but this does not vitiate the 1377 date proposed by Condren ChauR 5 (1971) for the composition of BD.

Despite the crossed purposes of the Prioress's secular and religious impulses, each impulse paradoxically reaches fruition in PrT. In creating the young boy as an innocent so like herself and then describing his martyrdom with the particular…

Chaucer celebrates "man's simultaneous transcendence and absurdity": in MilT, Nicholas's psaltery playing may be onanistic; in MerT, January's praise of Damian as "discreet," "secree," and "manly" may suggest his willingness to allow May…

Presents evidence of a coherently conceived allegory in ClT: God is to Man as Perfection is to Imperfection, a hierarchy based not on rank but on virtue. Thus God is to Man as Griselda is to Walter.

Reads CT (in Ellesmere order) as organized by the universal principles of entropy (movement to chaos), cybernetics (movement to stability), and synergy (transition to a changed or transcendent state). These three principles also inform the structure…

In TC, Criseyde's appeals to Hector for clarification of her status in Troy suggest that Criseyde seeks a romantic response from Hector rather than the official response she receives. This disappointment acts as a catalyst for future behavior in the…

Condren explores similarities of theme and technique in BD, PF, HF and TC, focusing on numerical composition and Chaucer's "self-dialogue" on poetry and love. Biographical reading of BD reveals that the man in black is not Gaunt but the dreamer's…

Reads PardPT for the ways they reveal more about the Pardoner than he intends. The Old Man shows the pain of the Pardoner's "joyless existence," even though he has attempted to disguise it in his Prologue; the rioters reveal his obsession with death…

Challenges traditional dating of BD and identifications of its characters, arguing for 1377 as a date of composition (eight years after the death of Blanche) and reading Octovyen as both Edward III and John of Gaunt, the Black Knight as a younger…

Assesses the history and criticism of the concept of courtly love, contending that it is a "complicated metaphor for the poet's commitment to the craft of poetry." Then considers the occasions and philosophical implications of BD, PF, and HF, arguing…