Browse Items (16381 total)

Examines concern with slander and defamation during Richard II's reign as context for a reading of ManT, contending that ManT reveals Chaucer's skepticism towards the power of language as a method of political control.

Observes that St. Matthew's account of the Canaanite's interaction with Christ is far more descriptively verbose than the version recorded by St. Mark, and argues that in SNP Chaucer very purposefully chose Matthew's version in order to augment his…

Argues that the condensing and synthesizing of sources in MkT mirrors the way in which clerical commentary changed in the fourteenth century to accommodate new readers uneducated in monastic tradition.

Observes that the tail-rhyme meter's layout on the manuscript page alludes not to romance but to a range of other forms, including liturgical hymns, vernacular lyrics, and drama. Examining Th in these contexts suggests that the text perhaps parodies…

Analyzes two medieval explorations of sensation--one by Thomas Aquinas, the other by Chaucer--and locates them within Theodor Adorno's account of aesthetics. Views Chaucer's poetry as a hinge between Aquinas' explanation of sensory perception and…

Examines the symbolic role of the privy pit in PrT, arguing for analogy "between the pit in the Jewish ghetto and the womb of the Virgin Mary."

Suggests that texts like PrT might be taught by examining their presentation of non-followers of Christianity as monsters, an alternative to post-colonial approaches.

Examines how song and sound create narrative meaning within PrT. Chaucer's choice of using the antiphon, "Alma redemptoris mater," reveals the "transformative force that sound bears." Discusses issues of performance, voice, and silences; aural…

Explores the relationship between textuality and sexuality in various texts, including Martianus Capella's "De nuptiis philologiae et mercurii," Jean de Meun's "Roman de la rose," and PardT, particularly the Pardoner's invitation to the Host to kiss…

Emphasizes "relic discourse" in England from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. Chapter 4, "Relic Discourse in the 'Pardoner's Prologue and Tale' and 'Troilus and Creiseyde,' discusses how the Pardoner's performance "reveals the workings of relic…

Studies "virtual" narratives in FranT. Compares FranT to earlier lais of Marie de France and "Sir Orfeo." Suggests that Chaucer's "unrealized possibilities" mark a moment in the history of genre development when medieval lais begin to resemble modern…

Argues that many late Middle English romances appeal to the gentry by coded references to the practice of "distraint," whereby gentry landowners were forced to take up knighthood or to pay fines. Concludes by comparing the attitudes expressed in…

Discusses the genre of "lay" as a subset of romance, and places individual lays in their historical and literary contexts, reexamining the meaning of "Breton" in relation to medieval Celtic literature more generally. Compares Chaucer's lays to…

Considers the body of the "Other" in various medieval romances. Chapter 1, "Ethnic Difference and Body Marvelous: the Case of Chaucer's 'Squire's Tale' and Sir Ferumbras," focuses on how SqT highlights Canace's ethnicity as a space for fantasy.…

Examines scholarship that traces Chaucer's "subtle" influence on Shakespeare, by drawing connections between MerT and "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Using ClT and other texts, looks at the intersection of asceticism and secular lifestyles.

Chaucer's modification of Petrarch's Griselda material return ClT closer to Boccaccio's original version of the story. By working with multiple versions of the story, Chaucer places himself in the pantheon of Italian writers.

Aristotelian and Augustinian concepts of moral virtue illuminate Walter's and Griselda's behaviors in terms of habit and its relation to place.

Chaucer's translations of key phrases in the Griselda story reveal his use of the Boccaccio source material as a way to underscore the "complexity" of the story and the varied authorial voices involved in translation.

Variant treatments of ClT 4.507-8 reflect editorial practices as well as scribal power, specifically Adam Pinkhurst's, in shaping Chaucer's texts.

Compares the fifteenth-century Scottish fabliau, "The Freiris of Berwik," to SumT and finds that the treatment of friars in the Scottish tale is more ironic than satirical, and is more concerned with eliciting laughter than with advancing an…

In light of the abuses of power in the medieval forest industry, the forest as backdrop to romance tales, and the hunt as an aristocratic privilege, FrT critiques administrative bureaucracy through a re-working of the "devil-and-advocate" fable.

Discusses how authors, from Chaucer to C. S. Lewis, are influenced by the "flexible tradition" of religious stories. Chapter 1 analyzes how Chaucer reveals understanding of Christian doctrine in WBT.

Clarifies what kind of poems William Wordsworth criticized as "idle and extravagant stories in verse" and examines four English narrative poems before Wordsworth, including WBT. All four turn out to be more or less "idle and extravagant" by…

Argues that the Wife of Bath "employs the courtroom pleading techniques of 'excepcion' and 'confession' and 'avoidance' to challenge the misogynist teachings of clerical authority." Demonstrates how Alisoun's discourse in WBP reveals her familiarity…