Browse Items (16381 total)

The Prioress's portrait in GP and NPT both draw from aspects of the Lancelot story. The Prioress partially models her own life on that of Guinevere without the full religious conversion that Guinevere undergoes after the death of Arthur. The Nun's …

Reviews Prudence's "allegorical reading practices" and argues that Mel is based on the "relationship between the literary mode of moralizing allegory and contingent reading practices."

Investigates uses of the words of address "heren," "herken," "herknen," "listen," and "listenen" throughout CT to find out differences of usage among them. Points out the peculiarity in the choices of such words in Th and discusses Chaucer's…

Th is told between PrT and Mel, two stories that feature violence. While Th is often read as an innocent parody of romance, there are suggestions of potential violence. In his encounter with the elf queen. Sir Thopas represents the threat against the…

Edits and translates a hitherto unknown Anglo-Norman analogue to PrT. The "Hugo de Lincolnia" is the only vernacular version of the story of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln produced contemporaneously with Chaucer's hagiographical tale.

Offers ShT as an example of how the use of fabliaux aids an understanding and exploration of marital dynamics, suggesting that the tale presents the merchant's marriage as a sort of economic contract between equals.

Studies several versions of the story of PardT, identified as tale type AT 763 ("The Treasure Finders who Murder One Another"). Assesses the functions of the characters, the genres in which it has been written, and the purposes of the story…

Starting with the clear similarity between PardT and the tale of "The Three Brothers" in the last of the Harry Potter books, argues that the series as a whole, like CT, is "framed by death," and by the fear of spiritual death. The terrible condition…

Explores the role of textiles in Breton lays and FranT, while focusing on narratives, character development, and theatricality.

Reconsiders the social status of franklins in the late medieval period and points out that their gentility is ambiguous. Discusses the value of "gentilesse" in FranT by comparing the tale with Boccaccian analogues, taking into account the…

Explores how kinds of motion, opposition, and directions create meaning in FranT.

Focuses on the oriental influences on Chaucer's SqT and on his treatment of the marvelous in light of the medieval controversial approach to mechanisms.

Traces the development, from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, of a "new trend in western European literature," a concern with trade between Europe and "Farther Asia": i.e., from Iran and the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Focuses on…

Contextualizes MerT by looking at medieval scientific writings on "pica" ("deviant pregnancy cravings") and the medieval "pathology of pregnancy," assessing May's pregnancy and her "sexual longings."

Observes parallels between the failed sight of Katherine's guide Adrian and that of January in MerT. Argues that Capgrave's use of such problems of vision highlights the human tendency to rely on "oculi carnis" rather than "oculi mentis."

Suggests that Griselda's excesses of bodily humiliation, self-sacrifice, and assent to contractual obligations, in response to her husband's rational program of complete control, actually represent a mystical negation of the self as subject that in…

Uses "thing theory" to posit that having things conferred subjectivity upon the holder in the Middle Ages. Applies this premise as a way to read Walter's treatment of Griselda in ClT, arguing that "Poor Griselda's selfless submission grows out of a…

Considers Thomas Aquinas's "Summa theologica" as a source of the concern with demons' bodies in FrT, arguing that Chaucer followed Thomas's account of this question with intelligent and close attention.

As part of a larger discussion of "loathliness" and the transformation away from loathliness in the context of marginalization of women, examines WBPT. Particular attention is paid to "the implications of disembodying a Loathly Lady in a tale that…

Focuses on devotional and legal "witnessing practices" of the late Middle Ages. Chapter 2, "The Face of a Saint and the Seal of a King," reveals how the Man of Law presents "episodes of false witness" in MLT.

Arguing that translations may be used to shape and define community identities, considers MLT as an effort to establish a "multicultural English Christianity." Other examined texts include "Orosius" and Aelfric's "Lives of the Saints."

The Reeve's dialect is usually considered a rendering of Norfolk dialect. However, Knox argues that the word "ik" indicates a Norfolk joke, revealing the Reeve's anachronistic and backwards speech.

Identifiess medieval and Renaissance characteristics of RvT and an early modern analogue,"The Mylner of Abyngton," and concludes that the two works share much in common.

The BBC adapted the bottom scenes of MilT "to suit the tastes of early evening TV spectators by eliminating the most explicit passages."

Applies Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the "carnivalesque," which provides a "context for understanding the importance of laughter" in CT. The Miller focuses on physical pleasure and natural instinct in MilT; his disregard for rules of social hierarchy…