Browse Items (16381 total)

Completed in 1513, Douglas's was the first and only full translation of Virgil's "Aeneid" into an English vernacular until Dryden's. The status of Middle English as a literary vehicle had been established by Chaucer. Douglas did the same for Middle…

Fables present a worldlier view than do Christian bestiaries, and neither genre presented a worldview full enough for Chaucer or other writers. Fable became more Christian, developing witty moralization, sharply drawn personae, and more vivid style…

At the crux of chronicle and romance, Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Historia" provides much of the basis for later literature. The work emphasizes women not only as child bearers but also as speakers who could uphold or deny legitimacy. Barefield discusses…

Fourteenth-century English dialogue between Wycliffite heresy and religious orthodoxy brought a redefinition of authorship and authority.

Explores the sociocultural influence of sacerdotal celibacy on literature. Capable of performing the Mass, the "special body" of the priest became a literary icon, aligned with the Latin language in opposition to Lollardy. Lay writing emerged against…

Unlike other authors of chivalric romance of his time, Chaucer manipulates medieval theories of rhetoric to reveal how the relations of authority and discourse define both the pilgrim narrators and the characters in their tales. Treats WBPT, KnT,…

Although Christian marriage was well defined by theologians in the twelfth through the thirteenth centuries, the proper role of sexuality remained debatable, as shown in the west portal of Senlis Cathedral, in Jean de Meun's introduction of the…

Describes the social and economic status of the "femme sole" in late medieval England, and discusses the role of the figure in select Paston letters, the Book of Margery Kempe, and CT, particularly the Guildsmen, the WBPT, MerT, ShT, and the…

Examines ethical questions raised by medieval literature for modern readers in the light of modern philosophical studies (Jean-FranƯois Lyotard, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Nancy), as shown in LGW (literature and history), Piers Plowman…

Defines anti-Semitic art as any work that employs pejorative stereotypes about Jews without repudiating them. Focuses on Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" but also considers PrT and Marlowe's "The Jew of Malta."

The clash of realist Thomistic Christianity (Dante) and nominalism (Ockham) provides the basis of Chaucer's exuberant satire on philosophy, linguistics, classical tradition, the state of the Church, and other late-fourteenth-century issues. HF…

Focuses on the association of preaching and the preacher's body in medieval tradition, exploring the association through traditional identification of women and the body. Women preachers of hagiographic tradition and various exemplary women…

Examines Wycliffite sermons and the opposing views of William Thorpe and Nicholas Love to compare Lollard and orthodox views of narrative and of the individual. Chaucer's awareness of the conflict, his refusal to take sides, and the futility of…

These works use the language and motifs of love to distinguish gendered passion. In particular, the diction and imagery of love associated with Criseyde in TC show her, unlike the male characters, to be motivated more by fear and a sense of honor…

Traces the development in English literature of attempts to "establish a poetic language mimetic of God's Logos." Explores writers from Chaucer to Eliot.

Professional book production and circulation in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, including Chauceriana, present courtly models for gender, eventually affecting rural gentry. The Findern MS revises femininity, and the female voice can be…

Analysis of WBPT, FrT, SumT, ClT, FranT and Ret indicates that Chaucer was "a realist with regard to religion and a nominalist with regard to language and epistemological issues."

A psychoanalytic, Lacanian study of the lover's complaint reveals the fragmented lover as seeking at once wholeness through recognition of his "trouthe" by the lady and union with her. Treats lovers' fantasies and failures in TC, Lydgate, Hoccleve,…

The poetry of the age demonstrates the construction and manipulation of history, while popular culture reflects the changing relations of ruler and laws. Thus "Wynnere and Wasture" treats the 1352 Statute of Treasons. Chaucer's MLT,a poetic revision…

Influenced by literature, the meaning of marriage changed radically in late-medieval England. Replacing the celebration of celibacy as reflecting union with Christ, earthly marriage validated itself in bourgeois ideology, as shown by FranT, Gower,…

Gossip, its meaning shifting from idle woman to idle talk, was treated as sinful and suspect in much clerical literature, including ParsT. Gossip in HF, WBP, and ShT provided Chaucer not only narrative techniques but also a method of experimentation…

In this study of a specialized kind of computer manual, Chaucer's Astr is cited as a prototype and analyzed for its use of three characteristic rhetorical features.

The medieval "ars dictaminis" evolved from fusion of rhetorical theory and letter-writing practice. Though originally an all-male art, epistolary form eventually became accessible to women. Examines PardT and other works.

The sense of individual authorship and the acceptance of English as a literary language were eventually accomplished by Chaucer, who, though he sometimes assumed authority through his guise of translator, became the model for subsequent English…

In his love visions, Chaucer initially claims to be stupefied by love and love poetry. Dalton analyzes this topos-deriving from many sources, including Boethius, the Roman de la Rose, and poems of Machaut-in BD, HF, PF, and TC.