Browse Items (16382 total)

Suggests that Chaucer "creates a literary imitation of a real pilgrimage" in CT, exploring the extent to which this enables him to accommodate the sacred and social, a version of the medieval "earnest and game" topos. Focuses on WBPT and PardPT.

Considers Chaucer's dream poems in the context of "epithalamic conventions" found in medieval French dream poems and their sources, exploring similarities of "structure, imagery, and theme."

Argues that the source of ShT is Boccaccio's "Decameron," and that their several differences were "made necessary by Chaucer's alteration of the ending." Chaucer gave his tale the "superficial appearance of a French fabliau" in order to critique the…

Studies how the movement from divine to mundane love is bridged by figural allegory in CT (especially PardPT) and in the Arcipreste's "Libro de Buen Amor."

Explores the skeptical uncertainly about dreams that is expressed in the opening of HF as it relates to classical and medieval notions of "mythopoesis" and the validity and interpretation of poetry. Reads HF as a parody of mythopoesis.

Summarizes John Dryden's theory of translation in his "Fables Ancient and Modern," and explores the discrepancy between this theory and his practice in his translations of KnT, NPT, and WBT, all of which "violate the spirit of their originals."

Argues that HF is unified and that in its concern with the power of language it anticipates the theme of language as magic or illusion in CT. Also explores the sources of HF.

Tallies Chaucer's varieties of word-play and explores their thematic value in relation to his concern with the interconnectedness of pilgrimage and play. Focuses on rhetorical tradition, play on "child" in PrT, the unity of SqT and FranT, and the…

Compares and contrasts CT, Dante's "Divine Comedy," and Langland's "Piers Plowman" as pilgrimage narratives, particularly their emphasis on the poet as pilgrim and movement toward salvation as structure.

Discusses Chaucer's accomplishments in the development of lyric poetry, with commentary on Machaut, Deschamps, Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Villon. Chaucer is the "high point" of the English tradition inspired by the French.

Surveys the imagery, symbolism, and thematic value of "poison and the venomous animal" in CT and focuses on PardPT where it is a "dominant aspect."

Describes how Arabic writing "bridged" Hellenic tradition and medieval philosophy, how Arabic science influenced Western civilization, how Arabic literature influenced portion of CT, and how courtly love in TC may reflect the influence of Ibn Hazan's…

Proposes that the private motivations of Chaucer's Troilus help us to understand why critics have "tended to exclude" TC from the romance genre.

Argues that the use of similar techniques by Chaucer, Spenser, and Dryden constitutes a "distinctive English fabular tradition," discussing ManT, PF, and NPT, as well as Spenser's "Shepheardes Calendar," "Mother Hubberds Tale," and "Muipotmos," and…

Discusses critical approaches to Chaucer's poetry using M. H. Abrams' categories of literary theory (mimetic, objective, pragmatic, and expressive) and commenting on the criticism of D. W. Robertson Jr., Robert M. Jordan, Robert O. Payne, and Charles…

Gauges the performances of the Canterbury pilgrims by their relative balance between self-will and common will, basing the distinction on patristic notions of pilgrimage and successful progress toward God, as well as Horace's aesthetic criteria of…

Considers Chaucer's (and others') treatment of envy as a Deadly Sin as background to the Renaissance understanding of the vice, which was influenced by classical tradition as well.

Studies the narrators of BD, HF, PF, and LGW for the ways that Chaucer uses them to examine "the task of revivifying the past" and explore the truth value of poetry and poetic traditions.

Describes the models of verbal portraiture in the "Rhetorica ad Herennium" and works by Geoffrey of Vinsauf and Matthew of Vendôme and their impact on Chaucer, arguing that the portraits of Fortune and Blanche in BD reflect the Black Knight's state…

Considers the uses of gestures in Chaucer's poetry: "simplistic" uses in HF and PF, broad variety in CT, and the complex characterization of Pandarus in TC. Focuses on expressive movements and postures of body and face, along with laughing, moaning,…

Surveys the importance of classical and medieval rhetorical theories that underlie late medieval poetry, and discusses the "flowering of rhetorico-poetic technique in Chaucer's verse," analyzing samples of his poetry in light of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's…

Connects the lament in WBP 3.614 with the more familiar proverb "Lechery is no sin," recurrently used by traditional "demonic" figures in early literature. The Wife's use is richer with "complex ironies."

Treats Chaucer's use of the humility topos in FranP as an example of "mannerist style," focusing on his uses of the terms "crude" and "excused" and his reference to Mount Parnassus. Exemplifies the rich classical background of these features, and…

Explores the figural implications of cow/ox imagery in "Truth," punningly evident in "Vache" and in references to beasts and stalls.

Considers Troilus' allusion to Oedipus at 4.300, and rejects the suggestion that it reflects psychological understanding; Troilus refers to Oedipus as an exemplar of someone victimized by Fortune.