Lloyd, Joanna Eve.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1987): 4081A-4082A.
Questions raised by and through many tales (KnT, Th, Mel, and PardT) and characters (Prioress, Wife of Bath, and Pardoner) disclose Chaucer's composite view of truth. The medieval Christian poet, however, would assume absolute truth to be beyond…
Pearsall, Derek.
Joerg O. Fichte, ed. Chaucer's Frame Tales (Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 1987): pp. 35-49.
With characters slightly less than human, Chaucer's fabliaux, a sort of "guerrilla warfare on established values," deviate from the classical definition of comedy ridiculing vice and folly to correct deviancy. Fabliaux characters are opposed to the…
From the "Roman de la Rose," Chaucer inherited a view of "janglerye" that implicated himself as a court poet. Throughout his career, and especially in CT, he explores the dangers of "janglerye" as an appetite.
Taylor, Paul Beekman.
Udo Fries, ed. The Structure of Texts (Tubingen: Narr, 1987), pp. 123-32.
Among the many "para-texts," or "refigurings" of material from other tales in CT, we find WBT, PardT, and Th, which refract, "correct," and refigure each other.
Introduces "Chaucer's allegorical tales as poetic play and playful poetry." In CT, Chaucer questions the nature of reality and the function of language in a complex interplay of realistic, grotesque, and sublime. Chapters deal with historical…
Mertens-Fonck, Paule.
Actes du Congres d'Amiens 1982. Societe des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Superieur (Paris: Didier, 1987), pp. 41-51.
In GP, the pilgrims seem to be arranged symmetrically in two groups of ten on both sides of the central group formed by the five guildsmen and their cook. Each group of ten falls into subgroups of two, three, or four, held together by a similarity…
Anderson, David.
John V. Fleming and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 2, 1986. (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1987), pp. 113-25.
Anderson examines Chaucer's use of Statius's "Thebaid," specifically the description of the temple of the goddess Clemence, within medieval traditions that saw her temple as a "type of foreshadowing of the Church," associated with the "Unknown God." …
By cryptic genealogic allusions, Chaucer challenges his readers to perceive parallels between the fraternal conflict of Palamon and Arcite and the similar disastrous divisiveness that troubled their forebears, notably Eteocles and Polynices.
Curtis, Carl Clifford.
Dissertation Abstracts International 47 (1987): 3753A.
In KnT, the medieval view of the deficiencies of classical ideals is demonstrated through the tacit presence of Christianity. In its light, the ancient order breaks down; thus, KnT fills a significant place in CT as Christian pilgrimage.
KnT's structure is paratactic, and the end is repeatedly called for but not brought into being. As a result, the ending is merely a ceasing of action, not closure, which would satisfy our need for aesthetic and philosophical completeness.
"Grene" in many contexts in Middle English poetry including Chaucer implies fertility and sexual desire. Hence, the line "In hope that I som grene gete may" may mean "In hope that I may get some sex."
Kempton, Daniel.
Journal of Narrative Technique 17 (1987): 237-58.
Having moved in his own life from warfare to pilgrimage, Chaucer's GP Knight depicts Theseus, a conqueror in war at the beginning of his tale, as effecting a solution at the end "by the arts of diplomacy and rhetoric in parliament." Theseus, with…
Luxon, Thomas H.
Chaucer Review 22 (1987): 94-111.
Frequent proverbs prevent the discovery of true comfort. The reader is "distanced" from the events in KnT and reminded that true "solaas" is found only through very long, very difficult, and individual struggle.
Olsson, Kurt.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 9 (1987): 123-53.
"Securitas" as defined by William of Conches, Phillip of Bergamo, William Peraldus, and others explains both the Knight's response to other pilgrims in the narrative frame of CT and his relation to Theseus in KnT. Both the Knight and Theseus attempt…
Terry Jones, in "Chaucer's Knight: Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary" (1980), maintains that Chaucer criticizes the Knight and his motives and expects his audience to join him. Evidence shows, however, that the Knight is portrayed sympathetically…
Robertson, D. W.,Jr.
Studies in Philology 84 (1987): 418-39.
Given historical events in the age of King Richard II, details of the Knight's portrait in GP would have been irrelevant before 1393 or after 1396. Chaucer may have inserted the Knight's description into GP, altered other details in GP, planned…
Medieval mythographies interpret Saturn in various ways: astrologically, euhemeristically, morally, naturally, and Neoplatonically. Interpretation of Saturn in KnT should entail recognizing this complexity of influences rather than privileging only…
Van Boheemen-Saaf, Christine.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987.
Expanded version of the author's dissertation (Rice University, 1987). Using the model of Levi-Strauss, she analyzes the function of plot in the novel and the mythic structure underlying its mimetic adaptation in Chaucer's KnT, Fielding's "Tom…
Woods, William F.
Philological Quarterly 66 (1987): 287-301.
The central tension in KnT involves the relationship between love and arms. The dialectic pits Theseus against Saturn; on all levels, the story moves from division to harmony, strife to union, and war to marriage through a series of compromises…
Patterson, Lee.
South Atlantic Quarterly 86 (1987): 457-95.
Although Chaucer was associated with the aristocratic seigniorial and mercantile classes, in the first eight tales he vigorously asserts the aggressive voice of peasant protest--fully in MilT but reverting to a somewhat more traditional and…
Arthur, Ross G.
English Studies in Canada 13 (1987): 1-11.
Treats the relationship of the Reeve to the Miller. Comparison of RvT with Boccaccio's "Decameron" and other analogues, including the status and character of their narrators, reveals the Reeve's essential meanness: his identification with the…
Brewer, Derek.
Joerg O. Fichte, ed. Chaucer's Frame Tales (Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 1987), pp. 67-81.
Places RvT in the context of oral literature: fluidity, a plot pattern more important than characters, fulfillment more important than suspense. RvT emphasizes the victory of young over old and shows no concern with moral values, except that "pride…
