Browse Items (16471 total)

Argues that Aristotelian theories of matter, form, and substance interact with medieval poetics, particularly in such works as ManT, SqT, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and those of Hoccleve and Metham.

Examines the treatment of books as physical objects in the works of Chaucer, Gower, and Hoccleve, suggesting that this treatment may create a way of perceiving the text on the part of the reader.

Examines the medieval conception of sight (both as sense and as ingress of the seen to the soul) in TC and Malory.

Discusses Chaucer and Langland in this study of outlawry, suggesting that the sovereign ban may be interpreted as a Galenic purgation of imbalance in the body politic.

Addresses Chaucer's works as part of a larger examination of the influence of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," particularly his employment of ekphrasis--the use of poetry to
portray other types of art.

Considers names in BD as part of a larger examination of nomenclature's role in defining Englishness within the context of other linguistic traditions.

Argues that the "creative potential of understanding invention at once as a textual and historical concept . . . receives its fullest treatment in the poetic exchanges of Chaucer and Gower," examining how in MLT and MkT Chaucer undercuts Gower's…

Discusses nominalism, realism, and idealism in "Pearl," "Piers Plowman," and HF, arguing that in the latter nominalism leads to realism.

Examines the use of riddling and the structure of riddles as a means of representing "the wondrous in the everyday." Specifically considers Chaucer's use of this in BD and PF. Additionally suggests that the "Secretum philosophorum" is an intertext in…

Considers Ret in the context of texts rendered physically inscrutable, forbidden, or recanted as literary/rhetorical strategies.

Studies "the literary, religious, and legal histories of felony procedure," focusing on literary depictions of felony, including those in ParsT and MLT.

Eamines uses of Penelope as the figure of the Faithful Woman in numerous late medieval works, including Anel, BD, FranT, and MLT.

Includes discussion of "Chaucer's critique of the rhetoric of moderation in the speech of the Pardoner and the Friar John [in SumT] . . . , who attempted to assert their clerical superiority and cover up their gluttony by preaching moderation."

Assesses Antigone and Cassandra in TC--characters who are themselves "literary creators"--to explore meta-level consideration of reader identification and authorial status.

Considers KnT and TC vis-à-vis Robert Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid" as part of a discussion of pain and love in chapter three.

Includes discussion of how Chaucer "lays bare . . . [h]ow language and other signs may be adopted to obscure the patently obvious," arguing that the Pardoner's "constant insistence on corporeal language and imagery always returns the reader to the…

Argues that Lydgate's critical return to prominence, after his earlier diminished critical attention, may stem in part from comparisons with Chaucer.

Suggests that in "Cymbeline," "The Tempest," and "The Taming of the Shrew," Shakespeare sets his work in conversation with the dream visions BD and HF, thereby allowing Shakespeare to claim a place in the Chaucerian line of English canon and to…

Uses CT and PF, among other texts, to examine the development and contemporary understanding of the concept of English Parliament.

Argues that the "Roman de la Rose" "initiates a literary tradition that understands reason to be in tension with and even antithetical to imaginative writing," examining in this light works by Chaucer (TC), Gower, Lydgate, and Hoccleve, exploring in…

Contends that William Baldwin's "Mirror for Magistrates" (1559) was previously seen as linking the medieval literature of Chaucer and Boccaccio with the early moderns.

Suggests that authors including Chaucer, Langland, Hoccleve, and Johannes de Caritate employed Aristotelian and pseudo-Aristotelian sources (many derived from Arabic sources) in the course of exploring types of literary and cultural authority.

Aligns happy endings with the "rhetoric of bliss" in Middle English romances and includes discussion of jealousy as the crux of KnT, arguing that the "happy closure" of the narrative can only come about when the jealousy between Palamon and Arcite is…

Surveys the history of handpress printing of CT, analyzing 140 editions, with particular attention to paratextual material as indication of Chaucer's reception and the "abundance of mediation."

Studies tensions between family approval and the consent of marital couples in late medieval England and its literature, arguing that TC and LGW offer conflicting views of the tension while MLT resolves it.