Browse Items (16381 total)

Discusses Mel as a medieval critique of the interplay between the justice system and the practice of livery and maintenance.

In an argument that medieval writers gendered undesirable aspects of pagan beliefs as feminine, Shutters examines Griselda in ClT.

Suggests that TC and WBP argue for a diachronic understanding of time-as-phenomenon, as opposed to the religious emphasis on eternity over temporality.

Moore shows that medieval poems (including Chaucer's) "exploit the less-determined systems of medieval speech marking for aesthetic and rhetorical purposes."

Ganze discusses concepts and manifestations of "trouthe" in MLT, ClT, and FranT.

In exploring development of the word/concept "womanhood," Williams discusses KnT and ClT, as well as works by Gower, Lydgate, Henryson, Kempe, and Julian of Norwich.

As part of a larger discussion of medieval estate management and its literary representations, Morris examines the character of Piers Plowman and Chaucer's Oswald the Reeve.

Passmore engages WBT as part of a longer examination of the Loathly Lady motif in English and Irish texts, stories, and fabula.

Chapter 2 examines two views of CT in eighteenth-century England: as a philologist's "historical foundation in need of preservation" and as "merchandise facilitating social refinement."

Considers representations of noble counselors to royalty in GP (the Knight), MerT, and Mel, among others, arguing that writers such as Chaucer and Langland demonstrate faith in this "traditional institution."

Anger "rises to the level of a philosophical and ethical problem for Chaucer." An understanding of the role anger plays in the formation of self and community is useful in understanding the communities Chaucer creates and examines in CT.

Considers Chaucer's rendition of Lucrece (in LGW) as part of a series of narratives that transform Lucrece's story into a text that "reveal[s] an evolving patriarchal ideology."

In a larger discussion of women's letter-writing, Sadlack notes that "Ovid, Chaucer, and Gower suggest that letters are often the best means for women to communicate."

Examines the concepts of "change and eschaunge" in Middle English poetry, with particular attention to Langland's Lady Meed, Gower's Constance, Criseyde from TC, and Lady Bertilak in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Considers instability and…

Considers BD and Pearl as case studies in the search for "an appropriate, adequate language of commemoration," as opposed to prior models of elegiac language.

Beginning with Boethius's feminine Philosophia, Simeroth examines "her" transformation in such texts as the "Roman de la Rose" (where she becomes Reason); Boccaccio's "Convivio" (where she is a gentle lady); and HF, where Chaucer merges Philosophia…

Explores fusions of penitential values and Wycliffite ideals in Chaucer's LGW, ParsT, and Ret, arguing that he used them to counter Richard II's use of exempla to suppress political dissent.

Identifies and analyzes the motifs and imagery of death in England in the fourteenth century to the sixteenth, including discussion of the relatively positive depictions of death in TC and CT.

Examines "how the non-human (the natural, not the other-worldly) world and its creatures were voiced in several late medieval English texts," including NPT and ManT.

Studies caves in medieval literature as "agential bodies" that challenge "us to reconsider the stories of the women, monsters and marginalized beings who are made to inhabit subterranean spaces" Includes discussion of Emelye's address to Diana as…

Presents a novel modeled on CT that emulates Chaucer's frame-narrative collection of stories, "reinventing" his setting at a modern murder trial, and using a variety of narrative forms to represent the tales of the jury. The accompanying analysis…

Examines the characters of Griselda and Walter in ClT, with particular attention to the diction associated with them: "bountee" and "sadnesse" for Griselda and "shapen" for Walter. Also examines the words the characters do and do not use.

Interdependence of parts and wholes in Chaucer's works anticipates a sustained concern with fragments and remnants in later literature, especially among Reformation bibliophiles who were struggling to "re-member" the past as a form of nascent…

Bergeson explores the semantic and dramatic range of Middle English "reden"--advise, counsel, read, interpret--as it is used and enacted in BD, HF, PF, and TC.

Bahr explores parallels between manuscripts as compilations and groups of people as affinities in late medieval London. Chaucer in CT and Gower in Confessio Amantis differ in how they conceive of literary and social organization.