Browse Items (16472 total)

Compares TC with Boccaccio's "Filostrato," arguing that Chaucer "adapted more portions" of it "than has previously been noticed," subordinating formulas, conventions, thematic concerns, and moral concerns to artful construction and "psychological…

Includes discussion of relations between "storm motifs" and "traditional attitudes towards love (conceived broadly as the relationship between man and the objects of his desire)" in various medieval texts, including BD, TC, MilT, MLT, and ABC.

Boehler employs the concept of "shame culture" (which emphasizes satisfaction and honor over personal happiness, or even survival) as a means to examine medieval heroes (including those in KnT.) Ultimately, shame culture contributes not only to the…

Surveys the intellectual and social backgrounds of medieval understandings of nobility and "gentilesse," and analyzes noble birth and noble action in TC and CT, especially the ironies of failed "noble potential" in TC, the framing noble ideals of the…

Studies the Collation Text and the Printer's Copy of Tyrwhitt's edition of CT, identifying his reliance on two manuscript witnesses--British Library Harley 7335 and Cambridge University Library Dd.4.24--and establishing "his fidelity to the…

Compares and contrasts Chaucer's and Langland's views of the "lower clergy" (monks, friars, and parish priests) in light of the "religious backgrounds" of their age, arguing that despite their stylistic differences their views are very similar in…

Item not seen; Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Lists, describes, and evaluates some thirty translations and adaptations of Chaucer's works published in books and magazines between 1792 and 1841.

Studies the "form in which Chaucer may have known Statius' poetry," focusing on "medieval glossed manuscripts" in order to identify correspondences between the poetry of Statius, commentaries on it, and Chaucer's works. Assesses the status of Statius…

Traces the development of the notion of mutability from decay to progress, with related motifs, and assesses its place in Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy" and the "De Contemptu Mundi" of Innocent III. Then examines Chaucer's "peculiar…

Item not seen; Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Investigates the "dynamic relationship" between Fortuna and Natura in Chaucer's works, focusing on the depictions in ClT, PhyT, and KnT

Summarizes the "antagonistic and contradictory views on women" held by the medieval Church, and explores Chaucer's views of women by examining his uses of the motifs of sovereignty and obedience in marriage from BD through CT, focusing on three…

Compares TC with Boccaccio's "Filostrato," and explores Chaucer's "controlled use of the gods and the Christian God" as they "function ambiguously and symbolically" in contributing to the "ultimate meaning of the poem."

Describes Chaucer's knowledge of and uses of Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum" in CT, as well as his references to the treatise and glosses to his manuscripts that quote it, focusing on the tales of the Marriage Group. Includes an edition of ten…

Shows that Chaucer uses "rhetorical figures . . . [to] produce imagery," analyzing the "use of imagery" in FrT, RvT, ShT, MerT, and MilT--in comparison with sources, where available--and focusing on how he uses imagery to create ironic effects not…

Studies "historical background" to Chaucer's Monk, Clerk, and Physician, comparing their characterizations with historical personages. Argues that the Monk is "probably either Benedictine or Cistercian," and "primarily realistic" rather than satiric.…

Explores the archetypal imagery of bondage and liberation from bondage in five "clusters" in CT: chivalric prison, animal confinement, "juridical bondage with its emphasis on 'wit,' entrapment, and hell and purgatory.

Examines the "nature and extent" of Ovid's influence on CT, identifying wide-ranging allusions to various Ovidian works and providing parallel passages, assessing Chaucer's emulation of Ovidian techniques and considering Chaucer's uses of…

Examines the astrological passages in Chaucer's works, not only the technical details but the their mythographic and iconographic implications. Includes discussion of Astr, Mars, GP, WBP, MerT, MLT, and ParsP.

Analyzes the rhetoric of Pandarus's speeches in TC, exploring how they align with Chaucer's changes to Boccaccio's Pandaro and how they reflect the emphases and concerns of medieval rhetoricians. Explores the different techniques of persuasion…

Describes medieval understanding of astrology and examines the "technical side of astrological passages in Chaucer" as well as their "meanings . . . in their poetic contexts. Includes discussion of FranT, Mars, GP, MilT, WBP, MerT, MLT, and ParsP.

Describes the "metaphysical associations" that numbers had in medieval imagination, and explores Chaucer's uses of number symbolism in his verse forms, the dates and astronomical calculations within his works, numbers associated with his characters,…

Organizes the narratorial passages of TC into six groups, and examines them in light of this classification: occupation, courtly love, humor, characterization, Boethian philosophy, and "medievalization," finding that the narrator is most important to…

Examines the "compassion" of the narrator of TC as his dominant attitude, "paradoxically allied" to his "helplessness" before "inexorable fate," and modified by his didactic intent, "historical perspective," and "ironic detachment."