Knight, Stephen.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 2 (1980): 15-51.
Modern sociological theories of criticism are applied to Chaucer's major works--BD, HF, PF, TC, and CT. In particular Pierre Macherey's ideological analysis is applied to structure and mimesis in Chaucer, and Jacques Lacan's theories on subjectivity…
Recent critics of Chaucer--Terry Jones, David Aers, and others--are conventional in their desire to moralize medieval literature. The trend of contemporary criticism of FranT, TC, and KnT, as examples, is to isolate from the story tableaux serving…
Ridley, Florence H.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 81 (1980): 131-41.
Chaucer's enduring appeal derives from his poetry's visuality,its presentation of unchanging human behavior, its deliberate ambiguity. The broad ranges of psychological criticism are viable as long as they are understood as imaginative constructs of…
Rogers, William E.
Chaucer Review 14 (1980): 260-77.
A theoretical objection to patristic criticism is that it is guilty of question-begging because it assumes that a work is intended to promote "caritas." It is not the assumption of coherence that produces the fallacy but the assumption of a…
In his paintings of the Canterbury pilgrims, Blake shows the influence of previous illustrations for and commentary upon CT, but goes beyond the artistic and textual tradition to set the group of pilgrims in his own Blakean cosmos, pairing characters…
Donaldson, E. Talbot.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 2 (1980): 7-13.
In this first presidential address to the New Chaucer Society, Professer Donaldson wittily summarizes the 20th-century conflict of opinion regarding Chaucer's work to conclude that Chaucer is partly to blame for the confusion. Like all great poets…
Gugelberger, Georg [M.]
Orbis Litterarum 35 (1980): 220-34.
In "ABC of Reading" Pound praises Chaucer above Shakespeare and Dante, and in his "Cantos" he makes important use of Chaucer's works, the short poems especially. Chaucer provides a setting-off point for understanding Pound's ideas about poetry and…
Hardman, C. B.
Reading Medieval Studies 6 (1980): 20-30.
Though Chaucer's reputation in the 16th century depended partly on works wrongly attributed to him, he was thought of as a proto-Puritan thinker, a model of eloquence, a love poet. Thus Spenser found it advantageous in the "Shepheardes Calendar" to…
The Augustans were the last English poets to possess enough confidence in their own idiom to attempt to make Chaucer their contemporary. Dryden's modernization of Chaucer was intended to achieve verisimilitude for his 17th-century audience. It…
Turner, Robert K.
Notes and Queries 225 (1980): 175-76.
The detail in "The Two Noble Kinsmen" IV.ii.103-05, where the blond prince's locks are said to be "hard-haired" and "curled," suggest that Shakespeare and Fletcher used Speght's 1602 edition of Chaucer when they based their play on KnT. In that…
Andersen, Wallis May.
Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (1980): 239A.
The ways these three pilgrims use four rhetorical devices--"occupatio," "brevitas," "digressio," and "descriptio"--reveals their personalities. The Knight's self-conscious narrative stance shows his pretensions: his insensitivity in his use of…
Graham, Paul Trees.
Ph.D. Dissertation, University fio Missouri atn Colimbia, 1979. Dissertation Abstracts International 40 (1980). Fully accessible via https://mospace.umsystem.edu/items/0fa7a2a8-75b5-4f6a-ba12-245f194f3626 (accessed April 12, 2026)
The categorical proposition, or sentence, is offered as a global model for narrative structure. The sentence structure, which makes meaning by suggesting the significant similarities between what might have been and what is actually said, takes the…
Morgan, Mary Valentina.
Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (1980): 2126A.
Rhetoric functions to shape the content of the narrative in a particular way and is successful when it enables the reader to actively participate in constructing the fictional world. Chaucer, Fielding, and Dickens call attention to their narrative…
Runde, Joseph.
Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (1980): 2128A.
An examination of some works commonly classified as romances--WBT, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "The Tale of King Arthur," "The Tempest," "The Winter's Tale," and "As You Like It"--yields a definition of "romance." It is the magician who…
Ando, Shinsuke.
Key-Word Studies in "Beowulf" and Chaucer 1 (1980): 49-57.
Chaucer's Nature, when the term is explicitly used, is an "idee fixe" essentially based on the orthodox medieval conception. The writer, however, examines the interest and attitude with which Chaucer represented the various aspects of humanity, and…
Hilary, Christine Ryan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (1980): 242A.
The religious "confessio"-tradition includes three modes: "Confessio peccati," "confessio fidei," and "confessio laudis." "Confessio fidei," which implies a self-testimony, provides the dominant mode for the secular literary "confessio" tradition,…
MacCurdy, Marian Mesrobian.
Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (1980): 2596A.
The image of woman is the focal point for the controversy regarding the good or evil nature of the physical world. Early Christian and Gnostic writings, selected troubadour lyrics, "Gawain and the Green Knight," Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur," and…
The magical pageant of the Briton clerk (FranT) is imitated in Shakespeare's masque of Ceres ("The Tempest"); Humbert Humbert ("Lolita") is an analogue of Prospero. The image of the magician in each work points to the activity of the creative artist…
Spraycar, Rudy S.
Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 81 (1980): 142-49.
The spring opening of GP may reflect Alain de Lille's concepts in "De Planctu Naturae," indicating the connection between nature's amorous regeneration and man's need for spiritual renewal.
Owen, Charles A.,Jr.
Chaucer Newsletter 2.2 (1980): 7-10.
Provides a broad outline for an undergraduate course in Chaucer and a complete syllabus for a graduate course, the latter based on the author's conception of the development of CT.
Suggests that after studying in CT the relationship of different poetic styles to different social or cultural classes, one might examine the visual art of the Limbourgs' Calendar in the "Tres Riches Heures." The stylistic iconographics of the poet…
Crisp, Delmas Swinfield,Jr.
Dissertation Abstracts International 40 (1980): 5450A.
Though CT was neither orally prepared nor heavily alliterative, traces of both traditions are present in the work. The oral tradition almost certainly influenced Chaucer's work more predominantly. The evidence of formulaic diction in CT is strong;…
Heffernan, Carol Falvo.
Canadian Journal of Italian Studies 3 (1980): 72-80.
John Speir's claim that both poets use similes to promote "distinct visualization" in the service of allegory and realism is borne out by "The Divine Comedy" but not CT. Dante's similes produce visual accent, serving as ancillary devices within a…
