Kokonis, Michael.
Yearbook of English Studies (Thessalonika) 1 (1989): 367-99.
Reviews recent rhetorical analyses of TC, examining how and how much "rhetoric affects the composition" of TC. Kokonis first reviews the "history and evolution of rhetoric"; then shows how rhetoric became part of "medieval aesthetic tradition," and…
Green, Eugene.
Rosanne G. Potter, ed. Literary Computing and Literary Criticism: Theoretical and Practical Essays on Theme and Rhetoric (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), pp. 167-87.
Examines the exemplum as a "speech act" in Gower's "Confessio Amantis" and in Chaucer's MLT, PhyT, WBT, and LGW. In WBT, "the motives of the hag in requesting marriage as recompense for her aid are central to matters of prudential action"; in LGW,…
Hagge, John.
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 20 (1990): 269-89.
By adducing several Middle English prose texts prior to Chaucer's Astr, Hagge refutes claims that Astr represents the first piece of technical writing in English.
Kaylor, Noel Harold,Jr.
Uwe Boker, Manfred Markus, and Ranier Schowerling, eds. The Living Middle Ages: Studies in Mediaeval English Literature and Its Tradition (Stuttgart: Belser, 1989), pp. 87-102.
Chaucer's tragedies, e.g. TC, are too complicated to allow easy categorization; likewise, his comedy. The first English author known to use the term, Chaucer uses "tragedy" to establish commonality between TC and MkT, both of which relate to Bo,…
Breuer, Rolf.
Uwe Boker, Manfred Markus, and Ranier Schowerling, eds. The Living Middle Ages: Studies in Mediaeval English Literature and Its Tradition (Stuttgart: Belser, 1989), pp. 183-95.
Treats the concept of tragedy in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, touching on TC and MkT.
DuBruck, Edelgard E.
Uwe Boker, Manfred Markus, and Ranier Schowerling, eds. The Living Middle Ages: Studies in Mediaeval English Literature and Its Tradition (Stuttgart: Belser, 1989), pp. 103-13.
After reviewing scholarly opinion of the Pardoner's character,DuBruck turns to the somewhat neglected exemplum of the rioters to analyze narrative speed and style, by which the Pardoner drives his text to an emphatic conclusion. DuBruck then…
Veldhoen, N. H. G. E.
J. Lachlan Mackenzie and Richard Todd, eds. In Other Words: Transcultural Studies in Philology, Translation, and Lexicology Presented to Hans Heinrich Meier on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday. (Dordrecht, Holland, and Providence, R.I.: Foris, 1989), pp. 107-16.
Discusses the tradition and analogues of the "demande d'amour" of FranT, compares Chaucer's use, and concludes that the young lover Aurelius has the greatest claim to the honor of being "mooste fre," although the question is exceedingly complex.
Kim, Jong-Hwan.
Journal of English Language and Literature (Korea) 35 (1989): 3-12.
Dramatic irony in FranT and FranP results in incongruities between the characters' appearances and their absurdities, also demonstrating the Franklin's ill-claimed eloquence and acquaintance with rhetoric.
Edwards, Robert R.
Robert R. Edwards. Ratio and Invention: A Study of Medieval Lyric and Narrative (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 1989), pp. 131-45.
According to literary theorists, writers were able either to rework sources or more easily, to invent new matter. In the former method, the poet had to work the original idea anew, avoiding too close imitation, errors, and confusion. In SqT, the…
Hanna, Ralph,III.
A. J. Minnis, ed. Latin and Venacular Studies in Late-Medieval Texts and Manuscripts. York Manuscripts Conferences: Proceedings Series, University of York, Centre for Medieval Studies, vol. 1. (Woodbridge, Suffolk, and Wolfeboro: Boydell & Brewer, 1989), p. 1-11.
Considers WBP as a compilation, "pieced together of verbatim translation" from a fuller text by Jerome. WBP represents "Englished" Latin, cut free from "control and indoctrination" of a closed Latin tradition and thus "seditious and dangerous,"…
Giaccherini, Enrico.
Italianistica: Rivista di letteratura italiana 18:2-3 (1989): 347-56.
Examines "the different use to which Chaucer and Boccaccio have put certain raw narrative material belonging to the tradition of popular comic literature" of their cultural heritage--i.e., Chaucer's use of sources in RvT as opposed to Boccaccio's in…
Trahern, Joseph B.,Jr., ed.
Knoxville, Tenn. : University of Tennessee Press, 1989.
Eight articles on standardization of English, three of specific interest to Chaucerians. Includes bibliography of Fisher's work through 1987. For the three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Standardizing English under Alternative Title.
Southworth, John.
Woodbridge and Suffolk : Boydell & Brewer, 1989.
Traces the traditions and explores the functions of harpers, minstrels, fools, actors, acrobats, singers, magicians, and other entertainers from Anglo-Saxon times through the reigh of Henry VII.
Scase, Wendy.
Cambridge and New York : Cambridge University Press, 1989.
The anticlericalism of "Piers Plowman" and its time period is not traditional, as has been assumed, but new and requires fresh examination. It transforms and unifies traditional attacks on monastics, friars, and secular clergy into an attack on all…
Machan, Tim William.
Roger Ellis, ed. The Medieval Translator: The Theory and Practice of Translation in the Middle Ages. Papers read at the University of Wales Conference Centre, Gregynog Hall, 20-23 August 1987 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1989), pp. 55-67.
Evaluates Chaucer as a translator according to the theories and principles of translation current in Chaucer's day.
A defense of Margery Kempe's religious visions, with extended discussions of other medieval devotional and mystical works,including the writings of Julian of Norwich, Richard Rolle,and Margaret Porete as well as devotional prayers recorded in MS…
Edwards, Robert R.
Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 1989.
Analyzes the intricate relationship among literary theory, poetry, and music, with examples from Chaucer and others--specifically, the "strategies of poetic composition" and the "location of invention within the text"--to produce "a literary reading…
Dyer, Christopher.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Bridging the social and economic histories of medieval England, Dyer examines the inequalities of English society as inherent rather than as economically shaped among the upper classes, townsmen, and peasants. GP offers criticism of a simplistic…
Derived from St. Bonaventure, the Franciscan model of meditation afforded the laity of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries a "means of participating in an eternal present," as demonstrated in "Piers Plowman," "Pearl," and "The Book of…
Christianson, C. Paul.
Joseph B. Trahern, Jr., ed. Standardizing English: Essays in the History of Language Change, in Honor of John Hurt Fisher (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989), pp. 82-112.
Presents a sketch of the development of the written trades and the connections among scriveners in the late Middle Ages.
Canfield, J. Douglas.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.
Treats selected major figures and works of English literature from "Beowulf" to Congreve, concentrating on the feudalistic idea of the "pledged word," as a shaping "master trope." By elevating the word to sign, Canfield applies theories of Derrida,…
Brewer, Derek.
Uwe Boker, Manfred Markus, and Ranier Schowerling, eds. The Living Middle Ages: Studies in Mediaeval English Literature and Its Tradition (Stuttgart: Belser, 1989), pp. 115-28.
Certain characteristics of Chaucer's poetry resulted from the influence of the court of Richard II, but paradoxically "in reaction against Richard." Brewer refutes Gervase Mathews's claim for a high state of culture and its influence in the reign of…
