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.
Strohm, Paul, and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds.
Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985.
Papers presented at the Fourth International Congress of the New Chaucer Society, University of York, August 6-11, 1984, selected and revised. For nineteen essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1…
Tuck, Anthony J.
Paul Strohm and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1, 1984 (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985), pp. 149-61.
The court of Richard II was influenced not only by Wycliffe and Lollard preachers but also by the Carthusians, who emphasized private devotion, mysticism, and eremiticism.
Of the interpretative constructs posited in the act of reading, none is more persistent than the author. In CT, GP, PF, and NPT, Walker examines author postulation to explain Chaucer's "tolerance" and "broad-minded humanity."
Weiss, Alexander.
New York and Berne: Peter Lang, 1985.
Treats alliteration, enjambment, repetition, oral style, etc.,to demonstrate that Chaucer's poetry represents "not so much...the beginning of a new tradition...as the culmination of a native poetic tradition," especially as found in early Middle…
Wimsatt, James (I.)
Paul Strohm and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 1, 1984 (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1985), pp. 69-79.
In Pennsylvania MS French 15, bourgeois realism produces the finest effects in the twelve pastourelles by "puy" poets. Possibly Chaucer was familiar with the collection, which could have influenced GP, MilT, RvT, CYT, PF, and TC.
Blake, N. F.
Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 10 (1985): 31-42.
Refutes Benson's view (SAC 3 (1981), pp. 77-120) that Ellesmere represents Chaucer's final arrangement of CT. Like Manly and Rickert, Blake thinks there is no Chaucerian order and that after Chaucer's death scribes tried to achieve a satisfactory…
