Kamowski, William F.
Dissertation Abstracts International 45 (1985): 3645A.
Aware that he was writing in an increasingly literate milieu, Chaucer adapted his text to listening or reading audiences. A development is traced through TC, LGW, CT.
Dickinson, Jean G.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1985): 145A.
Italian, French, English, and Spanish collections of tales, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, show women in increasingly significant roles. Though often satirized, women appear in lifelike situations and reveal contemporary attitudes.
Hodges, Laura F.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1985): 1620A
The headdress, cloak, and jewelry of the Prioress, correct or appropriate according to fourteenth-century views, conflict ironically with her character.
Feil, Patricia Ann.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1985): 1620A.
Studied in the context of bird debates, of works by Andreas Capellanus and Machaut, and of Chaucer's own KnT, WBT, and FranT, PF shows generic mastery and artistic integrity.
Shutt, Timothy Baker.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 1937A.
To Chaucer, Dante, Henryson, and Milton, the heavens were a celestial text, and movers of the spheres governed earthly affairs. Astral configurations allegorized to serve theological ends show the poets using accepted interpretations.
Buckler, Patricia Prandini.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2153A.
Studies the literacy, education, and cultural milieu of Chaucer's audience, the courtly circle and the upper socioeconomic echelons, especially the GP portrait of the Pardoner and PardT, to suggest reader response based on theories of Iser,…
Guthrie, Steven R.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2289A.
The similarity in "rhythmic structure and characteristic variations" of Chaucer's iambic pentameter in TC to Machaut's French "decasyllabe" in "Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne" has "implications for wider issues" in criticism. Using Parkes-Salter…
Desmond, Marilynn Robin.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2687A-2688A.
Studies medieval assumptions about and deformations of Virgil's "Aeneid." Chapter 3 presents the "self-conscious ironic" version of the Dido story in LGW; chapter 4, Chaucer's assumptions about the "Aeneid" in HF. Notes on Chretien, Caxton,…
Payne, Roberta Louise.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2688A.
"Pearl" is much more closely related to Dante than has previously been shown. Chaucer draws on Dante not only in HF and PF but also for Criseyde's dream (TC), drawn from the "Vita nuova." Only a few other English works (Lydgate's "Temple of Glass"…
Lomperis, Linda Susan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 2688A.
CT is read as an experiment in allegory in the sense of Isidore of Seville's "alieniloquium." The School of Chartres, the "Cosmographia" of Bernardus Silvestris, and Guillaume de Lorris contribute to the techniques of tension between rhetoric and…
Halliburton, Thomas Laughlin.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3027A.
In attempting to make of literary criticism a science, the profession falls into illogic and absurdity. Readings of KnT and MerT differ wildly. From Kittredge to 1980s, critics have been self-deluded.
Mosser, Daniel W.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3041A-3042A.
Study of the Cardigan MS (CT and two poems by Lydgate) by the method of Gruijs reveals that Manly and Rickert were wrong in assuming that the codex was produced under close supervision in a shop. Instead, "Scribe A" standardized its language. …
Glover, Kyle Stephen.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3346A-3347A.
Covenants, a pervasive theme in CT, may bind guest and host, ruler and subject, spouses, kin, or God and humanity. The covenant supports a willingly assumed hierarchy, a model for order; yet these bonds may be reversed.
Sigal, Gale.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3348A.
In a remarkably innovative use of received tradition, the aubades in TC reveal personalities, adumbrate the end of the story, and inspire a fresh aubade tradition in English poetry.
McClellan, William T.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3361A.
Instead of the single and individual voices that Kittredge found in CT, several voices may appear in a single tale. When analyzed by Bakhtin's discourse theory, ClT reveals not one but three distinct contending voices.
Stielstra, Diane.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3715A.
Examines psychological portrayals in TC, inner monologues, and audience response as compared to sources in Benoit, Guido, and Boccaccio. Compares Criseyde's inner monologues with Troilus's.
Wejksnora, Louise R.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 1317A.
Examination of all references and allusions to the Christian God and pagan gods in TC reveals that Chaucer works within a broad spectrum of tonal variations in the classical and medieval traditions. The poem carries simultaneously two opposing yet…
Chmaitelli, Nancy Adelyne.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 1722A-1723A.
On the bases of manuscript illuminations, ivory and stone carvings, and typological windows, Chmaitelli examines Dante's pageant at the end of "Purgatorio" and Chaucer's WBPT. The former shows the degeneration of the Church, while the latter reveals…
Corman, Catherine Talmage.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 173A.
Drawing on sources in rhetoric and preaching, Chaucer saw rhetoric "not merely as a collection of stylistic figures, but as a process defined by the interaction between a speaker, his words,...and the audience." He made the audience "active…
Conner, Edwin Lee.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 534A-535A.
A study of appropriate "medieval traditions of mythography, symbolism, iconography, religious devotion, and textual exegesis" demonstrates the coherence of GP portrait of the Squire and SqT.
Fredell, Joel Willis.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 895A.
Both the portraits of GP and the representations of the Deadly Sins in "Piers Plowman" (B text of "Visio") achieve a new form, combining the traditional with "individualized details." Such a pattern is analogous to the development of late-Gothic…
Stevenson, Barbara Jean.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1986): 896A-897A.
Controversy has arisen over Derek Price's theory that Chaucer wrote Equat. Apparently, Chaucer did not. Although Morton's "stylometry" test supports this view, the test itself reveals weaknesses.
