Browse Items (16472 total)

Because modern medical theories tend to slight classical and medieval theories (Galen, Aristotle, Avicenna), some of Chaucer's works are usually imperfectly understood. (For instance, flatulence was associated with virility.)

In light of Hans Jauss's reception theory, most scribes' and readers' glosses characterize SNT as either a study of Cecilia's personality or a reflection of Chaucer's religious nature. The narrative structure, however, places it at the juncture of…

Poets have used the complaint to express their own poetic and social situations. In BD, the nonaristocratic poet must work within a courtly mode; in TC, he expresses the "need for a sympathetic audience."

In light of Gerald Brun's investigations into historical hermeneutic theories, Chaucer may be seen as employing messenger figures throughout his oeuvre, from BD to CT. This role applies especially to Alys of Bath (despite her claims on Venus and…

Although Chaucer has been seen as a medieval nominalist or realist, or both at once, he should actually be recognized as an "intentional realist" in the modern (John F. Searle) sense.

Writers (Lao-Tzu, Chaucer, Lawrence, Faulkner) have used techniques of omission productively, evoking uncertainty to achieve aesthetic ends.

In light of Hans Jauss's reception theory, the fabliau can be seen as an evolving genre of social satire with humor deriving from the discrepancy between the behavior of social climbers and society's expectations. Treats Chaucer's fabliaux and…

Explores the figural significance of the veil, the earthly body of Christ, as projected in the garments of the "Pearl" maiden and of Griselda in ClT.

Examines CT in light of medieval discourses on allegory and of modern theories (exegetical, deconstructive, Bakhtinian), considering framework, prologues, and tales, especially WBT,PardT, and CYT. Also discussed are ParsT, Ret, Th, MkT, FrT, SumT,…

Although recent criticism tends to classify Chaucer as an Ockhamist/nominalist, a close study of his most philosophical poem, TC, indicates that his thought was traditional and scholastic.

As bearer of the Word, teacher, muse, and pilgrims' guide, Mary provides a feminine model of poetics for Dante, Chaucer, and Lydgate.

Among the handful of converted whores, Mary Magdalene is best known in late medieval writing through the homily "De maria Magdalena" (which Chaucer translated) and the Digby play. These works reveal remarkably literal physicality in which carnal…

Though hailed as an innovator by his successors and subsequent critics, Chaucer adapted existing traditions in innovative ways. "Colloquial" and "aureate" styles had already been developed in English, but he juxtaposed them. He was less the…

Chaucer explores the limits of romance and extends them so that TC, KnT, SqT, Th, WBT, and FranT become "poems about narrative."

Froissart's "Chroniques" have shaped subsequent perceptions of the uprising of 1381. Although Chaucer refers to it only once, his placement of the simile in NPT is significant. Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine took opposing eighteenth-century views. …

Discusses tensions between disorder and coherence in the conclusions of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "Pearl," "Cleannes," and "Patience," contrasted to conclusions of works by Chaucer.

Although Old English poetry always depicts Satan as supernaturally powerful (while doctrinally powerless), late-Middle English works show him as comic, the boaster who must fail--as in the mystery cycles followed by the morality plays. In Chaucer's…

Expands Ernst Curtius's world-upsidedown topos through Bakhtinian theories of textual dialogue and the carnivalesque to reveal the rich variety of a wide sampling of medieval texts, including CT.

Pask develops a distinct genre from Foucault's formulation of an "author-function": the life-and-works narratives that emerge in the historical perceptions of readers of Chaucer, Sidney, Spenser, and Donne.

Although Renaissance Scholars have tended to deny subjectivity in medieval literature, medievalists have shown that Chaucer develops it. So does the author of "The Kingis Quair," an important but generally neglected work.

Medieval anatomical, religious, and legal ideas about rape appear in medical texts, religious rules, saints' legends, romances, and WBT. These works reveal cultural attitudes toward rape and women in general.

Secrecy about sex cuts across genres and develops its own forms of rhetoric, as seen in works from Petrarch's "Secretum" through the "Roman de Silence," Margery Kempe, and PardPT.

Medieval English literature often incorporates Latin in any form, from close translation to radical reduction and including wordplay and allusion.

The inadequacies of the two previous editions of Lydgate's "Fabula" call for this full treatment, based on all manuscripts and annotated with references to related works, including KnT.

Discusses the differences and similarities between classical Greek ideas and late Roman and medieval Christian concepts of tragedy, focusing on Lucias Annaeus Seneca and his influence on the works of Chaucer, Jean de Meun, and Boccaccio.