Browse Items (16381 total)

RvT and ShT are related to Boccaccio's Decameron 9.6 and 8.1, respectively, not so much thematically as in their uses of source material. In particular, in its balance of comedy and moral teaching, ShT is closer to the general features of the…

Argues that oral/aural and visual aspects of MilT mark it as particularly theatrical, especially in its division of action into upper (John in the tub) and lower (bedroom scene) stages. Similarly, other fabliaux such as RvT and Dame Sirith share…

A brief description of the works of Chaucer and his contemporaries; the second chapter of a history of English literature designed for Italian undergraduate study.

Compares and contrasts RvT and Boccaccio's version in the Decameron with their respective sources: Le meunier et les II. clers and De gombert et des II. clers. Plots and characterization in the works are similar, although outlook and purpose vary.

Five chapters, focusing on "Sir Orfeo," "The Awntyrs off Arthure," the "Second Shepherd's Play," BD, and Pearl, respectively. The study emphasizes the intertextual relationships between classical myths, on the one hand, and Celtic and Anglo-Saxon…

Giaccherini reads PhyT as an experiment in "collaboration"--Chaucer's adaptation of the plot from Livy and the Roman de la Rose--that develops a concern for the private realm while downplaying the public.

Distinguishes between "anti-Judaism" and "anti-Semitism," and reads the former as a motif that combines with other devices to produce the excessive pathos of PrT, a form of late-medieval emotional intensity.

Assesses the terms used for varieties of dreams summarized in HF 1-12, comparing them with their source in Macrobius's "Commentary on the Dream of Scipio," with Latin usage, and with Chaucer's uses of the terms elsewhere in his works.

Traces Chaucer's references to Jews in his works--HF, PrT, PardT, and ParsT--arguing that repeated references such as "cursed Jews" are largely generic, used by positive and negative characters alike.

Describes classical, biblical, and patristic notions of "counsel" as background to Chaucer's "transcendentalizing notion of counsel."

Reviewing the traditional narrative of the Great Vowel Shift, with its recognition by Chaucer's early editors that major changes in prosody were underway, Giancarlo suggests revision of the monolithic GVS model in the direction of a more localized…

Considers issues of causality in TC as an aspect of the poem's structure and assesses the relationships of causation and structure to history and historicism. TC is more clearly recursive than its sources and is recurrently marked by the "Oedipus…

Studies the intersection between the "growth of parliament" and the "development of poetry" from c.1376 to 1414, focusing on depictions of parliaments in literature. Poets such as Langland, Gower, and Chaucer had "extensive parliamentary…

Introduces the kinds of courts with which Chaucer would have been acquainted, organized into sections on house and law and one on game that end with readings of FrT and SNT. Discusses the range of courtly depictions, cataloguing "some of the…

A collection of pedagogical articles from diverse perspectives--general overviews and approaches as well as specific approaches--by well-known Chaucerians, including John Fisher, Emerson Brown, Robert M. Jordan, William Provost, and Thomas W. Ross.

Modern notions and theory of literary titles ("titology") cannot be applied readily to medieval works. Gibbons comments on the titles of several of Chaucer's poems as an aspect of the "ordinatio" of their manuscripts. Medieval titles, especially…

Considers TC, MLT, and LGW in the larger context of the idea of "raptus" (rape or abduction) and its implications for national and other borders and for female status.

In the Noah's Flood motif of MilT, the audience delightedly and ruefully recognizes the consequences of the perversion of God's order. In addition to visual or other sensory images (the runaway mare in RvT) Chaucer employs also dramatic icons, as in…

Applies Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of "work-utterance" to Chaucer's influence on Shakespeare, focusing on how Chaucerian (and other medieval) narratives are involved in Shakespeare's "generic innovations" in "Troilus and Cressida," "Pericles," and "Two…

Includes four chapters, each devoted to a single poem as addressed on a particular occasion and/or to a particular audience, considered in light of rhetorical traditions, genre expectations, oral concerns, and sources: 1) SNT on the occasion of a…

Spanish translation of G. K. Chesterton's biography of Chaucer and his times.

The Boethian neo-platonic truth (man is immortal) gives insight into love's complexities and purpose and thematic unity to the "Somnium" precis and the love-vision. Nature's "governaunce" over the birds, like the Boethian bond of love, parallels the…

Close reading of KnT, focusing on elements such as syntax, diction, and imagery, shows Chaucer's dexterous use of high, middle, and low styles. The variety and combination of elements produce the tone of the poem and "naturalize" its philosophical…

Identifies connections between words and details of PF and Oton de Grandson's "Le Songe St. Valentin'."

Includes Th and a selection from MerT in the section called "Backgrounds and Context."