Browse Items (16471 total)

Focuses on the tension in TC between the "two dimensions of human experience: the temporal and the eternal," examining the "paradoxical position" of humans as they seek to "discover and affirm" a stable and permanent world while existing as creatures…

Studies Chaucer's uses of first-person narration in light of rhetorical tradition and medieval notions of the individual, examining PF as the site of the first "fully realized" instance of Chaucer's "characteristic narrative mode," reading TC as…

Surveys scholarship concerning Chaucer's word-play, describes the place of "double-entendre" in rhetorical tradition, and explicates 204 of Chaucer's word-plays in CT, concluding that there is some correlation between punning and the bawdy tales.

Evaluates the quality of Thomas Tyrwhitt as a scholar, examining his life, his early works, his edition of CT, and the ongoing reception of this edition. Concludes that Tyrwhitt was "one of the finest examples of the eighteenth-century…

Adduces evidence of the influence of Boccaccio's "Decameron" on CT by collecting all available indications of similarity--instances of borrowing and less specific parallel details.

Explores the attitudes toward death depicted in ABC, Purse, HF, and Bo, and studies CT for evidence of what Chaucer's own opinion of death may have been.

Traces the topos of the sufferer as protagonist in classical, Christian, and late Latin sources and explores it "as an element" in KnT, TC, and Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queene," arguing that Chaucer tends to emphasize "the value of acceptant…

Studies sermon rhetoric in CT, identifying its roots in preaching handbooks and considering its value for understanding aspects of structure, style, and characterization in SNT, NPT, ParsT, PardT, WBT, and SumT, treating the Pardoner, the Wife of…

Illustrates how literary works "can be read existentially from the point of view of the reader's ontological concern with them," discussing James Joyce's "Clay," William Blake's "The Little Black Boy," and WBPT. Reads WBT as a "reflection of the…

Reads LGW as a comic "parody . . . partially directed at sentimental readings of the Ovidian complaint" found in "Heroides," focusing on the palinode, love vision, and characters of LGWP and the "humorous inconsistencies" of the legends.

Discusses the "literary qualities" of Old French fabliaux, comparing and contrasting them with those of "higher genres" as a step toward gauging their influence on writers such as Chaucer.

Argues that Chaucer is "not an antifeminist" despite his uses of misogynistic materials from Theophrastus, Juvenal, Jerome, and others. His uses of such material in TC, LGW, and CT is self-aware and often comic, evidence of his "rising above" his…

Examines point of view, presentation, plot, and characterization in ShT, MilT, RvT, SumT, and FrT, comparing and contrasting these techniques with those found in Old French fabliaux, and arguing that Chaucer supersedes his predecessors in complexity,…

Describes the aesthetic standards espoused by the pilgrims in CT and argues that the Nun's Priest "fits his tale to his audience even as he tries to alter the views of the audience" and tries to solve for himself the question of free will versus…

Investigates the "plurality of meaning" in a number of Biblical and classical allusions in MerT, comments on sources, and discusses the setting of the Tale and the names of its characters, arguing that the cultural context of the Tale is a major…

Explores the relations between style and Christian morality in MilT, RvT, FranT, MLT, MerT, ClT, and NPT, gauging the moral outlooks of the narrators of the Tales.

Explores the relations between style and Christian morality in MilT, RvT, FranT, MLT, MerT, ClT, and NPT, gauging the moral outlooks of the narrators of the Tales.

Traces the character development of the Host in CT (following the Ellesmere ordering of the parts) and reads NPT as his "turning point" when he abandons comic "crudity, violence, and carelessness" for "capable leadership." Assesses Harry Bailly's…

Argues that the "innate absurdities" of the courtly love tradition invite parody and includes discussion of TC as a "sympathetic parody" in which "tone" is "governed by Boethian and Christian doctrines along with Chaucer's personal experience."

Describes the influence of Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum" on Chaucer, especially in FranT and WBP, and explains why the Pembrock MS 234, edited here, is "closer to Chaucer's source manuscript than any of the other" forty-two manuscripts considered…

Shows how Chaucer adapted Boccaccio's "Filostrato" in TC by increasing the density and variety of rhetorical figures, thereby "embellishing" the verse, altering characterization, transforming narrative perspective. and increasing irony. Includes an…

Shows how Biblical narratives underlie the CT, not only allusively but in narrative plots and figural schema, focusing on how materials from Genesis are present in GP (springtime creation), KnT (brotherly conflict similar to Cain and Abel), MilT…

Offers a critical edition of Kynaston's "Amorum Troili et Creseide," with attention to his "methods of translating" TC and his "explication of Chaucer's life and artistry."

Concentrates on Old English poems and Middle English plays that are analogous to Milton's "Paradise Lost," but includes in an appendix "[s]some relationships with The Canterbury Tales and . . . description of seven Middle English poetic analogues."

Surveys rhetorical criticism of Chaucer, exploring medieval and modern concepts of rhetoric, and assesses the "interruption by a pilgrim of his own narrative" in SqT, ManT, MerT, and NPT for the ways that such interruptions help to characterize the…