Brewer, Derek.
Paul Strohm and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1, 1984 (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985), pp. 3-19.
Examines themes of literacy, orality, emphasis on the written word, and reading in BD, HF, PF, LGW. Chaucer is unallegorical, even in NPT. In reconstructing Chaucer, we must beware of approaches too technical that cut us off from a "feeling"…
A review of the allusions to rhetoric in London poets of Chaucer's time fails to reveal a single firsthand reference to an original text. Rhetorical concepts contributed indirectly to their conceptions of poetry and gave the poets an air of literary…
David, Alfred.
Jane Chance and R. O. Wells, Jr., eds. Mapping the Cosmos. (Houston, Tex.: Rice University Press, 1985), pp. 76-97.
Examines physiognomical traditions of noses in medieval "descriptio" in rhetoric books, noses of the Miller and Prioress in GP, noses in RvT, and noses in French romances and in later literature.
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.
Ferster, Judith.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Ferster argues that modern literary and hermeneutical theory (Gadamer and Ricoeur, etc.) can shed light on medieval works: Chaucer's characters "interpret texts and each other as texts," in readings influenced by literary tradition, prejudice,…
Fisher, John H.
Thomas J. Heffernan, ed. The Popular Literature of Medieval England (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985), pp. 237-51.
Chaucer was evidently educated in the "ars dictaminis" (art of letter writing), which emphasized voice and point of view and may have influenced CT. While individual tales may have been written to be recited, CT as a collection was designed to be…
Friedman, John B.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 7 (1985): 137-60.
The Richard Thorpe section of the Pincus Codex may be the lost equatorium, or astronomical kalendar, listed in the library catalogue of the York Austin friars. An inscription to Penelope Thompson and disregard of manuscript duplications suggest that…
Gellrich, Jesse M.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985.
Using insights of Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Barthes, and Derrida, and treating the history of textuality from Augustine to Chaucer, Gellrich examines the relationship of literature to other medieval cultural forms that are often expressed in the…
Heffernan, Thomas J., ed.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
Includes the following: D. W. Robertson, "Who Were 'The People'?"; Leonard E. Boyle, O.P., "The Fourth Lateran Council and Manuals of Popular Theology"; Judith Shaw, "The Influence of Canonical and Episcopal Reform on Popular Books of Instruction";…
Hornsby, Joseph Allen.
Dissertation Abstracts International 45 (1985): 1275A.
Although probably not formally educated as a lawyer, Chaucer shows familiarity with common law, church, and "customary" courts, as investigated in a wide variety of his works.
Ikegami, Tadahiro.
Eigo Seinen 130 (1985): 496-97.
A report of the main papers read both at the Fourth International Chaucer Congress in York, England (1984), and at the Fourteenth International Arthurian Congress in Rennes, France (1984).
Jordan, Robert M.
Paul Strohm and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1, 1984 (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985), pp. 195-200.
Like modern theorists, Chaucer is concerned with language as a reliable vehicle to account for reality, as in HF, ManT, TC,Ret. The pilgrim narrator shifts in viewpoint and style; Chaucer exploits the gap between language and reality, as in TC, LGW,…
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.
Traces views of the medieval church and of Chaucer's sources for BD and PF. Treats love based on reason, affection, and friendship in sources: Aelred of Rievaulx, Jean de Meun, Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle.
Lock, Richard.
New York and London: Garland, 1985.
Concepts of time in nonliterate, oral traditions differ from those in literate, written traditions. Examines timing and logical linearity in ShT (pp. 234-39).
Ransom, Daniel J.
Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1985.
Ransom demonstrates "the ironic tone of four Harley poems," reveals "the parodic intention (ambiguities, incongruities, exaggerations) that underlies that tone," and discovers irony in other Harley lyrics. Includes various references to and…
Reiss, Edmund.
Thomas J. Heffernan, ed. The Popular Literature of Medieval England. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985), pp. 108-30.
A general discussion of the popular character of Middle English romances. The Theseus story in KnT and the Gawain material in WBT show Chaucer relying on audience familiarity with the material. Juxtaposing courtliness and bawdy, the structure of CT…
Rudat, Wolfgang E. H.
Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitatsverlag, 1985.
Includes chapters on classical allusion in Pope, More, and Milton, and two chapters devoted to Chaucer. Chapter 2 explores Chaucer's allusions to Virgil's "Aeneid" in KnT, concerning fate. Chaucer's view of a chaotic universe is compared to…
Spearing, A. C.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Rewriting literary history from Chaucer to Spenser, Spearing challenges C. S. Lewis's view that Chaucer "medievalized" his Renaissance-oriented sources, especially Boccaccio and Dante.
