Browse Items (16381 total)

Introduces a "Corpus of the Canon of Western Literature" (CCWL) based on Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon" and utilizes corpus stylistics to "operationalize" the argued coherence of the western canon. Using CT as an example, illustrates how tagging…

Examines various Continental and English works, including TC.

Studies the literary climate of women readers, real and fictional, who inform Chaucer's world, with commentary on the depiction of women reading in TC.

Distinguishes among "maistrie," "soveraynetee," "servage," "servyse," "governance," and "assente" in CT. These words thematically link WBT and ClT: individually defined relationships are signaled by "maistrie" and "servyse"; role-defined…

"Nuditarian," a euphemism for "bawdy" that was applied to Chaucer in 1869, points to a "cognitive dissonance" between Chaucer's greatness and his dealing with unfit subjects.

The Narrator's recollection of the Pilgrim's talk and the intonations of his own voice leave their sounds in all subsequent English poetry. These sounds are the result of the brilliant combination of conventional features.

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,…

Compares "The Owl and the Nightingale" and NPT as the "best beast fables" in Middle English, examining how the diction of each poem helps to create "voice" and thereby engage an audience.

Explores the pragmatic linguistic devices Chaucer uses to establish a common ground of communication and "create convincing exchanges" between the Dreamer and the Eagle in HF, identifying and analyzing various concerns: "back-channel," lexicon,…

In GP, Sq-FranL, and FranP, Chaucer characterizes the Franklin as obsessed "with appearances and good feeling." FranT manifests these obsessions and exposes the teller's "superficial understanding of 'gentilesse'."

KnT explores four hypothetical world views: the world ruled by Fortune, exemplified by Theseus and the Theban widows; man bewailing his helplessness, Palamon and Arcite in prison; man attempting to control social disorder, the tournament; man…

Anthologizes animal fables from worldwide cultures and various historical periods, classical to modern, including a modernized prose adaptation of NPT, here titled "The Tale of Chanticleer" (pp. 158-64), accompanied by five pen-and-watercolor…

Assesses TC as a "peculiar combination of church, chivalry, and courtly love," exploring the history of the amalgamation of the "system of knighthood," the church's influence on the "chivalric code," and the "idealization of woman." Then examines…

Pasolini in his "Canterbury Tales" identifies himself as Chaucer because his central concern is relationship of artist to art, focusing on sexuality and morality. The Merchant's Tale and Wife's Prologue show respectability cloaking lust; the Friar's…

Tallies eleven texts in thirty-three manuscripts, arranged and described under three headings: translations of the Latin "Trotula" (cited in WBP), versions of "The Sekenesse of Women," and related texts. Explores the readership of these texts and…

Challenges E. Talbot Donaldson's emendation of the Hengwrt reading "wight" (WBP 117); "wright" is acceptable Middle English syntax, makes good sense as it stands, and accords well with contemporary notions of God's perfect design of the sexual…

Ten essays by various authors, a forward and an introduction, a bibliography of Rigg's publications, and a subject index. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer; search for Interstices under Alternative Title..

Collects eighteen essays on widely varied topics in Middle English, Anglo-Latin, French, and book production. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for under Alternative Title.

Dates the macaronic lyric "On the Times" ("Syng y wold, butt, alas!") at 1380, reading it as a commentary on events and attitudes leading to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Lines 138-41 are authorial commentary and should be punctuated as such. The revised reading makes more immediate sense, adding parallelism and a touch of Chaucerian irony.

Explores women in Chaucer's LGW, HF, SqT, and Anel who are "cynically seduced and heartlessly betrayed, the innocent victims of masculine duplicity," and concludes that Chaucer's attitudes toward women and love differed radically from those of his…

A late-fifteenth-century French collection of riddles (Musee Conde Bibliotheque MS 654) may point to an origin of SumT in a familiar riddle rather than in the iconography of Pentecost.

Evidence both internal and external suggests that women were a distinct minority in Chaucer's audience.

Treats the modus vivendi of medieval poet in the context of the king's intimate circle, the literate court, the court of love, the writer as adviser or court apologist.

Chaucer's digression from Boccaccio concerning Arcite's career at court should be interpreted not biographically but rather in the context of the career of Havelock the Dane. Both tales show the social stigma of being a page; Arcite's role…