Browse Items (16381 total)

Representations of Mary in medieval literature are paradoxical, often underscored by her opposition to Eve. MLT and the hagiography Seinte Marherete seek to present a unified view of Mary but ultimately fail; WBPT and Pearl are more sensitive to the…

Surveys the history of approaches to Chaucer's meter and critiques individual approaches. Proposes principles of Chaucer's tetrameter and pentameter, focusing on syntactic inversions and phrase boundaries. Chaucer's verse developed from rough…

The proof of masculinity by man-to-man combat continues to fascinate modern writers, though as early as Chaucer the duel had been perceived as inherently wrong.

Considers biblical, historical, traditional, and hagiographical accounts of conversion, exploring Chaucer's appropriation of them to psychologize courtly love or "'fin'amors' as a surrogate religion" in TC.

Though the printing press and the Reformation have long been assumed to have altered radically the concepts of reader and writing, the persistence of the architectural trope in literature indicates that technology was less important than…

Lollard insistence on plain speech brought about a split between plain and literary language that persisted into the sixteenth century. Harris considers the "Pearl" poet and the fifteenth-century reception of Chaucer.

Free indirect discourse appears in TC and in works by John Lyly and George Gascoigne primarily for dramatic effects. Multiple voices in free indirect discourse may also mimic, distance, and achieve irony, as in many novels of the nineteenth and…

Examines the rise of professionalism and women's efforts to achieve autonomy in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England as represented in the mystery cycles, Chaucer's Wife of Bath, and Margery Kempe.

In his first three dream visions, Chaucer employed traditional form to transcend the genre, exploring poetic authority and ironic possibilities.

Examines how late-medieval changes in audience and breadth of subject transformed responses to exemplary literature, exploring "Livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry," Caxton's translation of it, and works of Gower, Chaucer (PhyT, PardT,and TC), and…

Law and its applications influence literary audiences, and Chaucer exploits the possibilties variously. In KnT, trial by combat fails to effect closure; Theseus must intervene. Melibee's final verdict acts similarly in Mel. In SumT, however, the…

As diplomat, MP, and associate of important political figures, Chaucer understood the operation of government and its rhetoric, reflected in Mel, MLT, ClT, KnT, and MerT. Chaucer's themes of class and gender relate to the nature of counsel-taking.

Literary uses of play and game both subvert and reinforce social order while encouraging readers to become involved. Medieval works tend to relate chivalry and war to game and play, while Platonism questions their value. Considers TC among works…

In patriarchal tradition, the Christian is defined as male and spiritual; the female, as Other, Hebrew, and carnal. Lampert traces tensions in the parallel between women and Jews from Bernard de Clairvaux to Shakespeare's Shylock, including medieval…

Ancient writings, especially inscriptions in stone, impressed the medieval reader as the most reliable of records of past wisdom, even though they might be paradoxical or, eventually, disregarded. Considers "Queste del Saint Graal," HF, and…

Contrasts Chaucer's storytelling techniques in KnT, MilT, PardT, WBT, MLT, and MerT with those of their sources, contemporary writings, and folk traditions. Uses the approaches of Propp, Bal, Bakhtin, and Frye.

"Second Nun and Her Tale" as prepared for the "Variorum Chaucer," based on the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts, with explanatory notes and critical commentary to 1994.

In medieval literature, the sins of Cain and Nimrod acquired sexual overtones associated with wandering. Warner assesses in this light the "Alliterative Morte Arthure," Dante, Abelard, Langland and NPT.

Chaucer's uses of political discourse intersect with his concerns about poetic authority. In PF, "commune profyt" represents both an equivocal political ideal and an idealized community of readers. In KnT, just as Theseus aestheticizes his reign,…

Rejects psychological characterizations of Troilus and Criseyde, arguing that they are better seen in light of rhetorical and devotional traditions. Associates Troilus with the ethos of petition and devotion and Criseyde with the pathos.

Analyzes the motif of the reflecting pool in works by Chretien de Troyes, Guillaume de Lorris, Jean de Meun, Chaucer, and John Gower.

Neo-Platonism is the root of medieval depictions of wilderness as a metaphoric landscape of psychological transition and spiritual conversion.

Examines how Chaucer and the Gawain poet explore the legal power of written and spoken words. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" challenges the potency of oral oaths, WBT parodies courtroom rhetoric, the GP sketch of the Sergeant of Law exposes legal…

WBT, PrT, and SNT all confront the masculine authority of books, the nature of love and marriage, and the nature of feminine authority--issues of female identity and agency. They assert a feminine response to masculine discourse in CT, culminating in…

Both Chaucer and Joyce are incapable of depicting women because the language they use is solipsisticly male and logocentric.