Browse Items (16472 total)

Explores the "double-contextual development" of characters and their actions in beast tales and beast fables, investigating double meanings (animal and human) in such narratives. Includes discussion of how NPT follows the Renart tradition in this…

Argues that concern with Providence is a major factor in the "high seriousness" of Chaucer's poetry, exploring relations between theological and poetic formulations of Providence before Chaucer and in a variety of his works.

Defines "ballad tragedy" in comparison with late-medieval "De casibus" tragedies, using ballads collected by Francis James Child and, among other works, Chaucer's MkT and TC.

Argues that in adapting the conventions of French love-visions Chaucer improves on his predecessors and comes close to perfecting one of major literary genres of the Middle Ages. Discusses BD, HF, PF, and LGWP.

Tallies similarities in the works of Chaucer and of Juan Ruiz (themes, sources, allusions, details, etc.) that they share as "representatives of the fourteenth century."

Chaucer's poetry must be read as "in dialogue" with his neoplatonic sources such as Boethius, Macrobius, etc. BD is a study of the root cause of "letargye"--the lack of harmony between the real and the ideal. PF is an analysis of man's…

KnT explores four hypothetical world views: the world ruled by Fortune, exemplified by Theseus and the Theban widows; man bewailing his helplessness, Palamon and Arcite in prison; man attempting to control social disorder, the tournament; man…

Parody is the key to understanding the relation between Chaucer's comedy and Christianity. Through parody Chaucer achieves high seriousness and high comedy. Parody of sacral sign and symbols in PardT and Marriage Group produces poetry that can be…

The scatalogical language and happenings in MilT and SumT can be interpreted as a serious commentary. The farting, kissing, and symbolic sodomy recall the anal character of demonic ritual. The friar's misuse of the gift of tongues may reflect the…

The systematized tradition of the "Chasse Royal," as described in contemporary handbooks of venery, establishes a pattern for the action of BD and explains many of the images and allusions.

Chaucer artfully uses meter to support meaning. The tensions between meter and speech rhythm, enjambment and run-on lines, rhyme and alliteration, and denotation and onomatopoeia all display his technical virtuosity.

The variations in narrative structure from BD to PF reveal a shift in Chaucer's belief from faith in the capacity of experience, book, and dream as sources of absolute truth to skepticism about these same medieval traditions.

Through study of Machaut's 'dits', we begin to get a sense of what Chaucer saw in Machaut's work. In addition to appreciation of his style, Chaucer must have recognized in Machaut's constant theme--human love, rightly and wrongly ordered--a sense of…

Boccaccio's "Teseida" is about social relationships and its theme is the proper behavior of rational people in a rational society. The KnT also treats social behavior, but its concern is people's attitude towards irrational, superhuman forces.

Rhetorical devices in Chaucer's early poems aid description, lend emphasis, achieve amplification or brevity, and mark transitions. The figures iintensify the utterances of characters, and characterize persons, concepts, or objects.

Explores problems in "Troilus and Cressida" in light of Shakespeare's uses of his sources, including TC.

BD displays the process of consolation as emotional change effected through the medium of epideictic discourse. In the act of speaking, the grieved knight apprehends the cause of his grief in a new way, and is consoled.

Study of KnT and ClT in light of their sources reveals the significance Chaucer was able to impart to his "translations". Study of PardT, and rhyme-royal tales demonstrates the poet's combination of observation drawn from life with that draw from…

In MLT and ClT scenes are juxtaposed and time spatialized. Dramatic moments never occur. In both tales, the shaping of expectations underscores the artifice of the poet.

Chaucer and Gower both saw life as a soul's endless journey. Both were concerned with the antipodal aspects of man's life. But Gower observed human conduct in light of moral and philosophical standards, while Chaucer never passed judgments.

The mistaken belief that sin was connected with death and sexuality led to the need to find a scapegoat. The result was virulence against women, Jews, or other denigrated casts. The virulence of the dominant group against the Jews in PrT can be…

Two mss and a copy of Caxton's edition contain marks indicating that they provided printer's copy for Thynne's edition. The readings which differ from the printer's copy indicate that Thynne also collated with other mss. Because of his access to…

In TC idolatrous love is rationalized by being conceived as one of the workings of nature. By Chaucer's time the Augustinian view of the valuelessness of temporal activities had been modified so that St. Thomas Aquinas could attach positive value to…

By the fourteenth century Augustinian idealism had lost ground to rising confidence in the experiential world. TC, KnT, FranT, and NPT all reveal the movement towards determinism. The idealism of the ParsT forms an opposition to this movement.

Through the game created by the Host and other references to playing, Chaucer created a festive structure for his tales whose movement leads the narrators, their audience, and the modern reader towards an ever-broadening perspective on life.