Browse Items (16472 total)

Yu examines the changing roles of literary rhetoric and dialectic, poesy and logic, from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. Chaucer is cited as a writer whose use of irony reflects changes in the understanding of logic.

Examining how post-Chaucerian writers and critics even to the present day have added and responded to CT, Higl argues that their works are analogous to the pilgrims' fictive contest. The dissertation assesses the evidence of reception in select CT…

Uses HF--along with Langland's "Piers Plowman," "St. Erkenwald," and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"--as evidence in a discussion of the medieval understanding of the memorialization process, suggesting that fame "becomes emblematic" of the…

Davis examines ramifications of the interplay between graphic design and text in William Morris's Kelmscott edition of Chaucer, arguing that the consequent mediation is a precursor to Walter Benjamin's theorized divorce of mechanically reproduced art…

Considers the alternation between the pedagogy of argument (prose sections) and pleasure (metrical sections) in "prosimetrum," arguing that the form of Boethius's "Consolation" was as essential as its content for writers such as Chaucer, Usk,…

Various Middle English authors succeeded in making London an urban, laicized intellectual center that balanced the clerical legacies of Cambridge and Oxford. These authors explored various academic disciplines (e.g., alchemy for Chaucer) in a manner…

As part of a discussion of Gower's trilingualism and his uses of history, science, and literature, Zarins contrasts the treatment of astronomy and literature in HF with Gower's "praise of science . . . for its own sake."

Argues that racial differentiation--generally associated with the early modern period--was not necessarily secondary to religious distinctions in the late medieval period, using MLT and other texts as evidence.

Knowles views deployments of the medieval concept of "service" (which encompassed an elaborate network of interpersonal and institutional relationships) in Langland, Julian of Norwich, and TC.

In Chaucer's poetry, guilt is represented as an "ethical ideal," whereas shame is often "portrayed as the psychological reality" that disrupts attempts to "realize the ideal." Throughout his poetry, but especially in CT, Chaucer articulates "the…

Examines the use of whiteness in a variety of medieval works, arguing that being "white" is a mark not merely of ethnicity but also of Christianity, "beauty," and rank. Examples include mystery plays, "Pearl," and BD.

Discussing fiscal metaphors for the state of the soul in the Middle English period, O'Neill suggests that Ret is Chaucer's effort to escape "the imperatives of stewardship," evoking instead "a relationship of mutual intercession with his readers."

Suggests that the "Loathly Lady" is an anthropomorphic representation of the land, linking human vagaries with the uncertain product of working any given land and underscoring the impossibility of human attempts to control and regulate the natural…

Argues that fourteenth-century English allegories and dream-visions "open up utopic spaces" and enable proposals for social change. Considers a variety of texts, including HF, which "discusses the potential inherent in both art and language to shape…

Uses Chaucer's works, Mannyng's "Handlyng Sinne," and several Middle English romances to examine conversion as a process by which the self is redefined either in opposition to a dominant class or as a means of admission to it.

Posits a connection between literature, subjectivity, and the diagnosis of medical symptoms in the late Middle Ages. Uses CT and other literary and medical works.

Reads Chaucer's lyric poetry as an important bridge or "hinge" between the medieval lyric poem and its modern successors.

Assesses Chaucer's presentation of women in TC, LGW, and CT (especially MLT) for the various ways that he invigorates them as characters to give them voice and dimension.

Mentions Hoccleve's role in establishing Chaucer as the prototypical English writer in the course of a larger discussion of Hoccleve's negotiation of the relationship between author and reader.

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.

Analyzes history of emotions, phenomenology, and gender theory, and specifically discusses "feminine embodiment and the bodily expressions of love" in TC and LGW.

Considers representations of the Flemish in such works as "Piers Plowman," the Paston letters, and CT, with a particular eye toward the use of negative stereotypes and the use of Flemish people as an Other for the purpose of developing an English…

Discusses Scottish poets' uses of Chaucer, both to deepen their own works and to establish their own independent literary tradition. Instances include "Kingis Quair," which incorporates motifs from TC and KnT; Henryson's work; and Gavin Douglas's…

Mentions Chaucer (WBP) while discussing the rise of experience as an acceptable authority in the writing of female mystics, supplanting a previous exclusive reliance on traditional authority.

Considering such works as "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," and PardPT, the author identifies finitude and nothingness as the roots of despair in late medieval and early modern works, as well as in modern…