Browse Items (16378 total)

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."

Uses ParsT as a standard by which to assess the morality of CT, discussing the "ubiquity of sin in the Canterbury pilgrims," the "prominence of Pride" in especially the Wife of Bath and Pardoner materials, and the balancing virtues found elsewhere in…

Derives a composite "Chaucerian narrator" from the poet's various works, characterized by "naiveté or dull-mindedness," the traditional pose of a "slyly comic writer." Then explores how this nuances of this figure are used to effects in individual…

Argues that MLT is neither saints' legend nor romance, but that its "heroic theme, setting, and characters suggest strongly that . . . it belongs to the literary genre of epic and to the sociological genre of myth."

Establishes the "intellectual background" to Chaucer's translation of Innocent's "De Miseria Humane Conditionis" as his "Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde," explores Chaucer's uses of the treatise in MLPT and PardT and their manuscripts glosses, and…

Treats TC as an "exemplum of" Bo, focusing on the extent of Boethian influence, the character of Criseyde, the ironic narrator, and the "appropriateness of the epilogue."

Studies "Christian phraseology" in troubadour verse, the poetry of Chrétien, the "Roman de la Rose," and TC, focusing on uses by the narrator, Pandarus, and Troilus in Chaucer's poem.

Investigates the uses and functions of allegory, dialogue, and symbolism in Boethius's "Consolation," Alan of Lille's "De Planctu Naturae," landscapes in twelfth-century literature, and PF, arguing that the latter is a "triumph of allegorical…

Interprets the Canon of CYP as "one of the men of Antichrist," and examines the sustained opposition of CYPT and SNPT, emphasizing their contrasting depictions of reason and revelation as ways of knowing.

Edits the early modern Welsh play, "Troelius a Chresyd," with commentary on its relations with TC, Robert Henryson's "Testament," and early modern drama, treating the Welsh drama as a "secular mystery play."

Explores the roots of medieval poetic theory in medieval rhetorical handbooks, and examines MilT, PrT, PhyT, MerT, and ClT) for evidence that Chaucer was influenced by the "received medieval poetic," even though his "narrative procedure . . . may be…