Browse Items (16379 total)

Way studies Chaucer's "trouthe" as meaning both troth and truth, with consequent conflicts arising in his poetry. In TC, "trouthe" is kept by silence even when the "trouthe" is broken. Absolute troth keepers (Griselda, Virginia) suffer. Truth…

That theme relates to numerical structures is apparent not only in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" but also in FranT,where each of the three parts reveals a pattern of A ("a major trouthe"), B (complaint), and C (helpful human intervention). Thus,…

Moore studies the influence of varied forms of dramatic presentation on Chaucer, Langland, and the "Gawain"-poet; significant use of voice and gesture is implied in their work although the poets were aware of a new audience of readers.

In KnT, the medieval view of the deficiencies of classical ideals is demonstrated through the tacit presence of Christianity. In its light, the ancient order breaks down; thus, KnT fills a significant place in CT as Christian pilgrimage.

Hewitt studies BD, HF, and PF with reference to Chartrian allegorists and the "Roman de la Rose," using theories of Heidegger, Derrida, and Lacan.

Questions raised by and through many tales (KnT, Th, Mel, and PardT) and characters (Prioress, Wife of Bath, and Pardoner) disclose Chaucer's composite view of truth. The medieval Christian poet, however, would assume absolute truth to be beyond…

Chaucer's method of creating romance (unlike the techniques of Milton, Hawthorne, and Faulkner) requires scrutiny of the placement of formulaic phrases to reveal meaning and theme.

Medieval literary influence should be understood through borrowing not only of phrasing but also of literary devices. Chaucer's grasp of the totality of Jean de Meun's technique pervades Chaucer's handling of allegorical conventions.

The strictly medieval method of casting and interpreting horoscopes shows--in the developing dialectic of free will, Providence, and neccessity--the shortcomings of some CT pilgrims too worldly for ideal pilgrimage.

Rehyansky studies classical allusions Chaucer introduced into TC: they underscore its themes. Oenone, Daphne, Europa, and Venus represent the folly and tragedy of love; Niobe, Tantalus, Ixion, and Tityus show the folly of pride, greed, and…

Fanale examines pertinent materials to construct a portrait of the confessor figure in fourteenth-century English literature, including the God of Love in LGWP, Pilgrim Parson, Gower's Genius, and the Green Knight.

Originating as a device of classical rhetoric, the exemplum became a genre in its own right through the church. Preachers brought it to a lay audience, and poets (Gower, Chaucer, Hoccleve, and Lydgate) eventually secularized it in various ways.

Approached through anthropology, psychoanalysis, and theory of literary response, the two works resemble female initiation rituals.

These two post-Ockham works treat absolute truth as unknowable and explore language and its manipulation, especially in their different renderings of the Griselda story.

Showing his perception of inadequacies in the practice of medicine through the Physician's portrait in GP and PhyT, Chaucer reveals his belief in the balance of mind, body, and soul and the need for God as physician in BD, GP, WBT, MilT,MerT, KnT,…

Treatments of Dido and Aeneas in HF and LGW indicate that Chaucer develops a narrator-character who mediates actively between subject and audience in a more modern way than do his sources.

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticle, all ascribed to Solomon by medieval commentators, shed light on both Dante and Chaucer. The latter drew both on Ecclesiastes and on commentary for TC.

The question whether a poet celebrates the famous (medieval view) or seeks personal fame (Renaissance) is examined through classical and medieval traditions and in HF.

Following treatment of Peter Lombard, Dante, and Boccaccio, analyzes Troilus's two "cantici" (TC, bks. 1 and 5) for strategy, structure, and significance.

Redirecting the verse letter from Horatian urbanity and medieval rhetoric, Chaucer achieves an intimate, familiar tone. His successors from Dunbar to the Renaissance develop variously.

This triad, repeated through the romances and the Marriage Group, and the unifying figure of the Host, in both GP and the links, demonstrate Chaucer's command of rhetoric and his originality.

Lists references both to the Vulgate and to the mass, prayers,holy office, and hymns, as noted in the Baugh, Benson, Fisher, Pratt, and Robinson editions. The Latin passage, modern English translation, and Chaucer's treatment follow.

Discusses the artistry of Chaucer's GP portraits: their relationship to contemporary literary expectations and the "conventional medieval portrait," their order, their importance in creating a "sense or 'reality,'" and their "interaction" with…

The tradition of listing good women, dissociating them from their backgrounds, reveals varying attitudes toward woman's nature and rhetorical shifts from florilegia to debates; LGW is treated.

Images of the cosmos based on the liberal arts appear in the epics of Martianus Capella, Bernard Silvestris, Alain de Lille, and Dante. Chaucer parodies and humanizes the universe in HF.