Comments on translations/modernizations of TC from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. Considers modern problems with reproducing the nuances of Chaucer's courtly idiolect, particularly "courtly value words" such as "goodly," "fresshe,"…
Exemplifies several difficulties in translating Chaucer's verse into modern verse or modern prose, commenting on concerns with "tonal register," rime riche, semantic change, taboo words, pronouns of address, the historical present, rhyming tags, and…
Assesses the location and implications of one stanza from TC (1.400-406) as quoted in the "Disce mori," a fifteenth-century manual of religious instruction addressed to "Dame Alice." The quotation indicates that some may have read TC as a warning…
Discusses the "relationship of engravings to narrative" in Eric Gill's woodcuts for the Cockerel Press four-volume edition of CT (1929–31), focusing on its frontispieces and "late or climactic moments in the tales," with b&w illustrations. Comments…
Chaucer's depiction of time in the opening of GP is modeled on either Guido delle Colonne's "Historia Destructionis Troiae" or Boccaccio's "Ameto," although Chaucer mistakenly inverted the mention of April and the cliche about March.
Fludernik, Monika.
Anglistik: Mitteilungen des Verbandes deutscher Anglisten 34 (2023): 77-100.
Uses the term "narrator" as a technical term to refer to "the contours of the narratorial functions and the textual voice as these are inscribed," focusing on "expansion of narratorial functions" in fifteenth-century English hagiography. Includes…
Outlines the "historical background on outlawry as a legal practice," and uses this background to explore how the depictions of outlaws in WBT and KnT unveil "chivalry's ideological blemishes" by showing how outlawry displaces a character's…
Surveys translations and studies of medieval English literature produced in the People's Republic of China, commenting on the important role of Professor Li Fu-ning and describing translations, theses and dissertations, and critical books and essays.…
Elliott, Charles, and R. George Thomas.
Anglo-Welsh Review 14 (1964): 9-17.
In two parts: 1) Elliott admires the unity and aesthetic qualities of PardT and addresses PardP as Chaucer's successful means to insert commentary on Church corruption; 2) Thomas argues that the Pardoner's effrontery and the moral failings of the…
Classifies approximately 220 mythological characters that appear in Chaucer's works: supernatural creatures, human beings, and other classical references. Describes and analyzes the presence of Ascalafo, Canace, and Midas in Chaucer, focusing…
Chaucer and Gower both adapted the story of Constance from the Anglo-Norman chronicle of Trevet. A comparison of the proper names, institutional terms, and speeches shows that Gower closely follows Trevet while Chaucer modifies the story in MLT.
Dor, Juliette.
Anke Bernau, Ruth Evans, and Sarah Salih, eds. Medieval Virginities (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), pp. 33-55.
Dor links the exhibitionist sheela-na-gig with the widespread Celtic mythological motif of Lady Sovereignty that has been identified with the transformation motif in WBT.
Nolan, Edward Peter.
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 1990.
Studies the figure of the Pauline paradigm "videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate" (1 Cor. 13.12) in Western ontology and epistemology, examining "the functions of intra- as well as intertextual literary mirroring" (Virgil's use of Homer, Chaucer's…
Collette, Carolyn. P.
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2001.
Medieval ideas of psychology and cognition underlie the concern with sight, imagination, and "fantasye" in select tales of Canterbury, wherein Chaucer demonstrates that the only certainty in human relations is uncertainty. The male characters of KnT…
Ginsberg, Warren.
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Developing Walter Benjamin's model of translation and seeking to "rethink the dynamics of cross-cultural translation," Ginsberg explores how Chaucer's borrowings from and dependencies on Italian literature "disarticulate" the legacy of Dante,…
Hagedorn, Suzanne C.
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2004.
Hagedorn emphasizes the variety of versions of classical stories of abandoned women (Statius, Virgil, and Ovid) and the ways they were adapted in medieval tradition (e.g., Dante's "Inferno"; Boccaccio's "Teseida," "Fiammetta," and "Amorosa Visione";…
Donaldson, E. Talbot, and Judith J. Kollmann,eds.
Ann Arbor: Michigan Consortium for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 1983.
An introduction by Donaldson and essays by eight authors explore Shakespeare's use of Chaucer and the ways both treat similar themes. Contains a bibliography. For the eight essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Chaucerian Shakespeare under…
Pearsall, Derek.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990
A selective, annotated bibliography of 614 entries, indexed rather than cross-listed, covering 1900-1988. Entries are arranged under descriptive and topical categories such as Bibliography, Date, Meter, Literary Relationships, Allegory,and Dream…
Walker, Sue Sheridan.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
Eight historical and legal essays by various hands, including two of potential value to Chaucer studies, especially treatments of WBPT: Barbara A. Hanawalt, "Remmarriage as an Option for Rural Widows in Late Medieval England"; and Richard M.…
Nichols, Stephen G., and Siegfried Wenzel, eds.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996.
Nine essays by various authors and a closing commentary address organization, inclusion, and definition of medieval miscellanies--Latin, French, and English. The essays were first presented at a colloquium at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993.…
