Reads TC allegorically, with sustained attention to astrological imagery, characterization, narrative structure, the biblical Book of Daniel, and the Augustinian theme of the transference of power.
Defines "exemplum" and describes the history of the genre before Chaucer; then focuses on Chaucer's innovative uses of the device to produce comedy in MilT, SqT, and SumT, also commenting at length on exempla clusters in HF and FranT.
Uses Morris Halle and Seymour Jay Keyser's metrical theory to describe "English decasyllabic verse of the later Middle Ages" and explore why Chaucer's iambic pentameter was not followed more closely by poets such as Hoccleve, Lydgate, Dunbar, and…
Argues that "in Chaucer's poetry women are consistently portrayed as seeking out a niche in the social (or religious) hierarchy which will permit them to serve in the subordinate position St. Paul insists they were intended to fill." Discusses all of…
Reads CT as a unified, encyclopedic "symposium on what men should seek, and what they should avoid," focusing on variety in the GP, the pilgrimage motif, and the "three longest tales": KnT, Mel, and ParsT.
Wass, Rosemary Thérèse Ann.
DAI 35.08 (1974): 5124A.
Counters "Robertsonian" or exegetical criticism of Chaucer's works, particularly its neglect of "later scholastic philosophy," focusing on views of individuality and experience found in writers such as Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.…
Language, money, and gender are "signifying systems" that underlie notions of law and order in medieval tradition. Cady examines how Chaucer presents the interactions of these systems in WBPT, MerT, and PardT.
Chaucer's use of the Vulgate parables influenced the frame structure of CT, provided a number of images, and strongly affected PardT. Wheeler tallies allusions to and quotations from the parables throughout CT.
Feminist poststructuralist approach to TC, LGW, HF, and MLT that emphasizes the instability of readers as well as texts and indicates possibilities for subversive readings.
Assesses the first-person narrator of CT as a "portrayal of a poet in the act of constructing a poem," focusing on how diction and syntax call attention to the narrator.
Sheridan explores ways that language is like money in acts of interpretation, examining the role of the Host in CT, readers' valuations of various tales, patronage and interpretive control, and the "mercantile" strategies of May (MerT) and the Wife…
Both Boccaccio and Chaucer use the figure of the "woman reader" to represent changing interpretive strategies that, in turn, reflect changes in social complexity. Lartigue focuses on the Teseida, the Decameron, LGW, and CT.
An iconographic analysis suggesting that the illustration of Chaucer reading to the court of Richard II benefited the Lancastrian campaign to recognize "English as the national language of England" (exemplified by Chaucer as supreme "user and…
Leech attempts to formulate a context for understanding medieval body images, using Rolle, Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and Kempe along with Chaucer. Chapter 5 considers KnT, GP, WBT, and ParsT.
Explores the link between fear of God and literary expression, usually manifested as "overwhelming prolixity." Considers several of the tales in CT as part of this exploration.
Examines illustrations as cues to engage non-professional readers of the Ellesmere manuscript and the Kelmscott Chaucer. These techniques may suggest ways of engaging present-day non-professional readers of Chaucer as well.
Examines CT structurally in the context of the fourteenth-century popular view of games and gaming. Also deals with the rules of CT, its game in action, violations of the rules, and Chaucer himself as the game's most important piece.
As part of larger argument that miscellanies were an "essential material condition of vernacular literature before the introduction of printing," Shuffelton considers CT as a booklet miscellany.
Focusing on literary depictions of maying activities in medieval records and the Roman de la Rose, Bezella-Bond assesses their depiction in Malory and in Chaucer's BD, PF, LGWP, KnT, MerT, and WBPT.
