Browse Items (16381 total)

Argues that in his characterizations of the non-ecclesiastical pilgrims of CT Chaucer emulated the devices and techniques of medieval ethology, based in the "contemptus mundi" tradition, and variously prescriptive and descriptive. Comments on GP as a…

Dorigen of FranT is "more important as a figure that reflects back on men and their desires than as a distinct character in herself." Englade applies Georges Bataille's "expenditure" theory to show that there is "no place for Dorigen within the bonds…

Compares characterization in KnT with Milton's in "Paradise Lost."

In response to William McClellan's article and drawing on an earlier article of his own, Engle sketches how Bakhtin can function as a mediating figure in the current politics of theory and interpretation, particularly with ClT.

Chaucer exemplifies one of Mikhail Bakhtin's important claims that laughter can engage and comment on human systems and can function as a form of social and intellectual critique. Engle briefly surveys Bakhtinian theory, suggests its power in…

Item not seen; reported in WorldCat, with the note: "Engelse gedichten van Chaucer tot de Beatles met vertaling" [English poetry from Chaucer to the Beatles with translation]. In Dutch and English.

Establishes that John Harington owned a copy of William Thynne's 1542 edition of Chaucer's complete works and may have annotated it when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Comments on Harington's annotations and speculates on communal reading…

Argues that the scriptural glosses found in Thomas Godfray's 1535 publication of "The Ploughman's Tale" are similar to Langland's techniques in "Piers Plowman," as are the "poem's anticlericism and alliteration"; when Godfray republished the tale in…

Includes recurrent comments on early modern reception of Chaucer and his status as a laureate poet, with focused attention on the spurious attribution to Chaucer of the romance "Kynge Rycharde cuer du lyon" found in an annotation to the work in the…

Studies post-Reformation understandings and treatments of romance--a "fluid" genre--for the ways they disclose "subtle continuity" across the traditional divide between medieval and Renaissance. Focuses on resistance to erasure of the genre,…

The poet juxtaposes the narrator's dream to a summary of the "Somnium Scipionis," reconciling Venus and Nature, and resolving the strain of living in a world of abstract thought and human experience.

Before Richard II's deposition, Chaucer affected an apolitical stance, while Gower became pro-Lancastrain. Poetic self-representation later gave way to politicized views in the works of Hoccleve, Scogan, and Lydgate. The dissertation also treats…

Nine essays by various authors, an introduction by the editors, a commentary on Fleming's critical legacy by Steven Justice, and a bibliography of Fleming's publications. For five essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Sacred and Profane in…

Compares Scog and Henry Scogan's "Moral Ballade," arguing that the two works reflect aspects of Ricardian and Lancastrian culture, respectively--Chaucer serves in a "benignly neglectful court culture," and Scogan heralds an "age of politicized…

Chaucer employs ekphrasis ("verbal representation of a visual representation") in the temples in KnT to comment on the social contexts and cultural production of art. The paintings and sculptures aesthetically justify Theseus's own authority, but…

Analogous to orientalism, the "philologism" of RvT is rooted in "North-South binaries" that partake of and help to constitute southern condescension to northerners in England, even before the rise of a Standard Written Dialect. Informed by the…

Epstein argues for a nuanced understanding of money in SumT, reading its significations in light of the thirteenth-century Franciscan treatise "Sacrum commercium," medieval commercial practice, and deliberations on quality and quantity among the…

Contrasts Gower's and Chaucer's depictions of alchemy in, respectively, the "Confessio Amantis" and CT, and analyzes what these narratives reveal about the poets' views of money and economy. Unlike the depiction of money in Book V of the "Confessio,"…

The exchanges of goods and services in ShT are often read following Bourdieu's theory that self-interest motivates all human actions. This essay claims that such analyses do not take into account other motivating factors clearly present in the tale,…

Explores the "gift economy" and commercial culture of CT, and applies gift theory and economic anthropology to medieval literary criticism. Examines "gender of the gift," exchange of women, and gifts in GP. Chapter 6 focuses on the Franklin's gifts…

PardT has been classified as anti-marchen because its unhappy ending violates the marchen's typical "weightlessness," but given the negative nature of the hero, PardT does follow the normal marchen pattern. "Anti-marchen" should be redefined.

Argues that Biblical and Neoplatonic number symbolism conveys the message of BD: that souls return to heavenly happiness. Considers Chaucer's summary of Scipio's dream, traces references to Pythagoras in BD, and identifies places where it…

Offers evidence from Thomas Dekker's "The Bel-man of London" (1608) that supports reading "to pull a finch" as "having to do with extortion based upon a trumped-up charge of fornication," hence an accusation against the Summoner (GP 1.652) for…

Manuscripts used as copy by printers are scarce. An examination of MS Bodley 638 reveals both codicological and textual evidence that discloses the printers' intentions. The 1530 edition of PF, used by Robert Copland, was established from this…

Pepys MS 2006 contains a unique grouping of Mel, ParsT, Truth, and Scog. Written by two scribes, it displays the names of John Kyriell (gentry) and William Fettyplace (London mercer). The two social classes of Kyriell and Fettyplace indicate either a…