Browse Items (16376 total)

Explores how deafness is represented in some medieval medical treatises as a social phenomenon, "not an ill in itself"; in Teresa de Cartagena's autobiography as a "deaf gain" rather than "hearing loss"; and in Chaucer's Wife of Bath as a mark of her…

Item not seen; the WorldCat record indicates that this is a compilation of literary works and extracts from the classical era to the twentieth century, including WBT.

Chaucer's portrayal of the Monk and of the monk in ShT is complex and sympathetic. Contemporary expectations about monks are clear in the Host's reactions to the Monk. Daun John fits the stereotype but may be motivated by a desire to chastise…

RvT is "concerned with breaking the ranks of social hierarchy" and what causes individuals to desire such breaks. The clerks, the women, Bayard, and especially Symkyn all experience "frustrated desire," which leads Symkyn "to expand into outer or…

Adduces an historical account from 1862 concerning a drinking game that involves turning over cups to suggest that "turne coppes" at RvT 1.3928 may indicate Symkyn caroused in similar fashion.

In Jungian terms, the experiences of the knight in WBT express a psychic interaction with the mother archetype, leading to the ultimate goal of finding the anima.

Underlying many traditional stories is the basic structure of the individual emerging into adulthood and establishing his or her identity by destroying parent-images and finding a beloved equal. A chapter on Chaucer establishes his equivocal and…

Kuskin presents a manifesto on history-of-the-book studies as well as on the need to rethink Chaucerian reception. The volume is divided into three sections: "Capital and Literary Form," "Authorship and the Chaucerian Inheritance," and "Print and…

Trede-fowl, the controlling image of a Middle English lyric (Sloane MS 2593), often cited as an analogue to images in NPT and MkT, suggests pagan, early Christian, priestly, and bawdy meanings.

The archetype of initiation is the structural principle of TC. The archetype produces a number of images and actions illustrating the physical and spiritual development of the hero. The archetype is more revealing of the surface structure than of…

Many details and images of NPT become obvious symbols of eroticism if compared to more explicitly sensual literary and artistic works of the Midddle Ages.

Argues that the name Simond/Symkyn in RvT "involves a pun on the Latin word 'simia,' meaning 'ape'," exploring Symkyn's multiple associations with apes, along with those of Robin the Miller.

Suggests that WBP 3.707-10 inspired lines 1–3 of Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy."

Discusses swoons or relevant scenes in Rom, BD, Anel, Mars, TC, LGW, KnT, MilT, MLT, and WBT to reveal how the swoon creates comical effects throughout Chaucer's poetry. In Japanese.

Surveys literary representations of swooning from late medieval works to modern ones, assessing how the motif is "inflected and re-inflected as ideas of the body, gender, race, sexuality and sickness shift through time." After an introductory essay…

Summarizes the principles of "alchemical theory," exploring Jungian associations and emphasizing Christian interpretations in medieval and early modern commentaries. Focusing on imagery of CYP, suggests that the canon is associated with the…

Reads the "growth and decline" of friendship between Troilus and Pandarus in TC as an ongoing commentary on the love affair between Troilus and Criseyde; both relationships indicate worldly impermanence.

Nachtwey argues that chivalry was "a pragmatic institution" that created a framework for understanding/controlling knightly violence. Further argues that this concept of chivalry is apparent in the works of Froissart and Chaucer (especially in TC and…

By emphasizing the contrast between excessive sweat in CYT and its absence in SNT, Chaucer indicates the disjunction between carnal and spiritual.

Assesses the location and implications of one stanza from TC (1.400-406) as quoted in the "Disce mori," a fifteenth-century manual of religious instruction addressed to "Dame Alice." The quotation indicates that some may have read TC as a warning…

Explains Fortune as a figure that embodies historical flux and affirms aristocratic privilege. In TC, references to Fortune do not provide a philosophical norm against which to test the attitudes of the characters; the references assert politically…

Assesses the swearing by St. Ronyon in PardP and explores its dark ironies.

Zeikowitz articulates the "largely unnarrated 'ocular logic' of the exchanges between Troilus and Pandarus" in Book 1 of TC and "teases out the subtle homoeroticism underlying their interaction." The essay focuses on the cinematic technique of…

Argues that Daniel 13.20 is a source of or influence on details of MerT 5.2138-48, and suggests that pictorial representations of Susannah and the Elders and details from the alliterative poem "Susannah" reveal ironic dimensions in Chaucer's scene of…

For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Surface et profondeur under Alternative Title.