Cooper, Christine F.
Yearbook of English Studies 36 (2006): 27-38.
In MLT, Chaucer uses the case of Custance's Latin being understood by Northumbrians - an instance of xenoglossia, more characteristic of the saint's life genre - to focus on translation in various genres and to make Custance, "subtly active," an "apt…
Cooper, Geoffrey.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 79 (1980): 1-12.
"Sely" (from OE "gesaelig") originally meant "happy, fortunate," and hence "blessed by God, pious, holy." Later,however, the word took on connotations of "pitiful" and "silly, rustic," while still retaining its earlier meaning in different contexts.…
Cooper, Helen, and Robert R. Edwards, eds.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
Twenty-nine essays devoted to the examination of poetry from the end of Old English verse through the Ricardian poets, including an introduction by the editors. For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Oxford History of Poetry in English.…
Fourteen essays by various authors on topics in English literature of the late fourteenth through early sixteenth centuries. Includes an introduction and a bibliography of Gray's publications. For seven essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Long…
Plenary lecture positions Chaucer as important to sixteenth-century writers for his incorporation of the Latin rhetorical tradition--particularly the concepts of decorum and Augustine's three levels of style--into English, even as he does so with…
Cooper, Helen.
Piero Boitani and Anna Torti, eds. Poetics: Theory and Practice in Medieval English Literature (Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: D. S. Brewer, 1991), pp. 83-103.
Examines the equation of political and poetic authority in the works of Chaucer and his contemporaries. Historical romance tends to legitimize political authority and to cite poetic authority, while the fabliau pretends to chronicle true occurences…
Cooper, Helen.
Yearbook of Langland Studies 1 (1987): 71-81.
GP was inspired by the A text of Piers Plowman, echoing its concern with estates satire, its concern with social and moral cohesion, and many of its details.
Cooper, Helen.
Ruth Morse and Barry Windeatt, eds. Chaucer Traditions: Studies in Honour of Derek Brewer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) pp. 168-84.
The Wife of Bath is interpreted variously: She is a shrew; she is the voice of feminism; she represents Eve; she stands for joy and vitality. The Wife demands female sovereignty in marriage, but this sovereignty is put into doubt by the end of both…
Cooper, Helen.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 2d rev. ed., 1996. 3d rev. ed, 2023.
The Oxford Guides offer summaries of what is known about Chaucer's work and include "fresh interpretations based on recent advances in both historical knowledge and theoretical understanding." Cooper includes commentary on all aspects of CT as a…
Cooper, Helen.
Charles Martindale, ed. Ovid Renewed: Ovidian Influences on Literature and Art from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 71-81.
Discusses Chaucer's borrowings from Ovid in HF, BD, WBT, and ManT. Although to the fourteenth century the "Metamorphoses" was a chief among works demystified or allegorized to produce Christian doctrine, Chaucer rejects this tradition and emphasizes…
A comparison, not a source study, which discovers parallel attitudes toward style, character, and tradition, especially on the role of humor in "Ulysess" and CT.
Treats CT in context of literary and social conventions of the age, discussing genre, ordering of CT, the diversity of pilgrims and genres in the tales, KnT, links within fragments, themes. CT does not accept the answers in ParsT and Ret, and…
Cooper, Helen.
Leeds Studies in English 13 (1982): 104-23.
Wyatt's awareness of the power of direct language is Chaucerian, as is the flexibility of his use of rhyme royal. Unlike Chaucer, however, Wyatt is a poet of the contraries existing within the individual, and whereas Chaucer advocates a stable mind…
Cooper, Helen.
P. L. Heyworth, ed. Medieval Studies for J. A. W. Bennett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), 65-80.
KnT, MilT, MerT,and FranT share the same plot--the story of the girl with two lovers--and show striking interrelations and variations of episodes, conventions, images, and ideas.
Cooper, Helen.
Martin Stevens and Daniel Woodward, Eds. The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation (San Marino, Calif.: Huntingon Library; Tokyo: Yushodo, 1995), pp. 245-61.
The manuscripts and internal evidence of CT indicate that those who "put the various examplars of the tales, links, and fragments in order for Ellesmere did not have any manuscript consensus to work from, and indeed, they have helped create such…
Cooper, Helen.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 19 (1997): 183-210.
An advance first chapter of a proposed revision of Bryan and Dempster's 'Sources and Analogues' (1941), in process under the editorship of Robert Correale and Mary Hamel. Cooper evaluates the relation of CT to other medieval storytelling…
Cooper, Helen.
Patrick Mileham, ed. Harry Mileham, 1873-1957: A Catalogue. His Life and Works, with a Selection of Paintings, Designs, and Sketches (Paisley: University of Paisley, 1995), pp. 45-47.
Comments on Harry Mileham's painting of the Canterbury pilgrims, depicted in a tavern during the telling of PardPT. Mileham is sensitive to literary and historical detail, derived especially from GP and the Ellesmere illustrations. The painting…
Cooper, Helen.
Vincent P. McCarren and Douglas Moffat, eds. A Guide to Editing Middle English (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998), pp. 79-93.
Describes the problems of editing Chaucer's works (especially CT), observing that modern editions tend to ignore them.
Cooper, Helen.
Theresa M. Krier, ed. Refiguring Chaucer in the Renaissance (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998), pp. 189-209.
Renaissance dramatic adaptations of Chaucer's works often resolve tensions left reverberating in his narratives (e.g.,John Fletcher's "Women Pleased" and WBT; Fletcher's "Four Plays" and FranT). But Fletcher and Shakespeare's "Two Noble Kinsmen"…
Cooper, Helen.
New Medieval Literatures 3: 39-66, 1999.
Assesses Chaucer's relation to Dante as one of "palpable disbelief" in the Italian's claims for authority about the afterlife and God's judgments. In MkT and HF, Chaucer adapts Dante to establish a more worldly and more skeptical sense of poetry.…
Cooper surveys Chaucer's linguistic and poetic innovations, emphasizing that his rewritings of classical, French, and Italian models were "far from being acts of homage." Chaucer may have thought of himself as a literary heir, but he was an…
Joyce was re-reading CT while revising Ulysses. Chaucerian influence extends beyond allusion to parallels of linguistic conception, encyclopedic reference, and form. The works share elements of tone, a sense of place among the great works of…
