Little, Frances.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 3358A-3359A.
Protagonist and narrative are usually aligned in medieval literature, but the protagonist is alienated from the narrative when his or her ethos conflicts with generic context, as in Chaucer's TC and CYT and in works of Malory and Hoccleve, among…
First, McGerr reviews modern theories on closure and examines medieval theory on literary design and closure in Geoffrey of Vinsauf, John of Garland, Ludolf of Hildesheim, Brunetto Latini, Dante, and others to show that "medieval concepts of closure…
McKenna, Steven R.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 3370A.
Chaucer's poetry presents tensions between the authority of literature and that of traditional oral wisdom. In HF, the confused narrator cannot induce meaning; in TC, Troilus's mindset, Pandarus's and Criseyde's reliance on proverbs, and the…
The public evidence of Edward III's religious devotion reveals his rather conventional piety, "imbued with a strong and confident nationalism" and dedicated largely to commendation of his dynasty.
Reiss, Edmund.
Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney, eds. Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 113-37.
Dante, Boccaccio, Gower, Chaucer, and the Archpriest of Hita are aware that language is deceptive: signs are ambiguous and may be misunderstood, or they are deliberately deceptive. The author may serve as trickster and may demand reader "response…
Ridley, Florence H.
Patrick J. Gallacher and Helen Damico, eds. Hermeneutics and Medieval Culture (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 15-25.
Ridley views certain aspects of hermeneutic study of Chaucer, in company with certain modes of classical rhetoric, to "help us better to understand both 'how' the poet crafted his poetry and 'why' as a medieval writer he did so."
Schaber, Bennet Jay.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 3359A.
Through the application of Lacanian psychoanalysis, Schaber examines HF, BD, PrT, and PardT to determine the repressed objects, erotic and political, manifested as the body and understood as fantasmatic.
Shoaf, R[ichard] A[llen].
Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney, eds. Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 9-30.
Treats the anxiety caused by the "instability and arbitrariness" of language as a "transcendental medium...between phenomena and ideas."
Stieve, Edwin M.
Dissertation Abstracts International 49 (1989): 3037A.
Surveys medical and historical writing as well as clerical interpretations of the bubonic plague. Treating literary representation of the plague as emblematic of ethical and societal cataclysm, Stieve considers the role of the plague in the writings…
Strohm, Paul.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Using a variety of contemporary texts, including statutes, poll taxes, and political treatises as well as fictional narratives, Strohm studies the structure of late-medieval social relations to provide an interpretative context for events in…
Vitto, Cindy L.
Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1989.
Treats the debate over the problem of salvation for the virtuous pagan and the solutions of theologians in the medieval Church and then concentrates on Dante, "St. Erkenwald," and "Piers Plowman."
Volk-Birke, Sabine.
Heinz-Joachim Mullenbrock and Renate Noll-Weimann, eds. Anglistentag 1988 Gottingen: Vortrage (Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1989),pp. 209-19.
The oral-aural traditions of sermon giving and hearing can be illustrated in Chaucer's PardT, where four principles of sermon writing can be seen: strong interaction between the Pardoner and his audience of pilgrims; syntactic patterns such as…
Wasserman, Julian N., and Lois Roney, eds.
Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989.
Fourteen essays and an introduction explore "the subject of language in medieval literature" using traditional approaches together with modern critical theory, focusing on "what medieval writers themselves wrote about language," and specifically…
White, Hugh.
Review of English Studies, n.s., 40 (1989): 157-78.
The natural is commonly seen as a norm for human behavior in the Middle Ages, but Chaucer reveals skepticism about the normative status of Nature and the goodness of the order it oversees in ManT, SqT, BD, PF, and TC.
Wood, Chauncey.
Patrick J. Gallacher and Helen Damico, eds. Hermeneutics and Medieval Culture (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 51-60.
"Medieval authors mistrusted their readers' potential responses and felt obliged to direct that response accordingly"; in medieval literature, the author's address to the reader was "a device to activate the critical intelligence, while deactivating…
Armour-Hileman, Victoria Lee.
Dissertation Abstracts International 50 (1989): 950A.
Three paradigms of the Celtic universe made their way, through either oral or literary tradition, into early English literature, as is shown in "Sir Orfeo," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," passages from four of the tales in CT, Spenser, and…
Ashley, Kathleen M.
Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney, eds. Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature (Syracuse, N. Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 272-93.
From preaching tradition Chaucer borrowed the "topos" of renaming the sins "to make them seem more attractive to sinners," a "topos" that took two major forms: "a narrative "exemplum" about the Devil's unmarriageable daughters," and a "non-narrative…
Hilberry, Jane Elizabeth.
Dissertation Abstracts International 50 (1989): 935A.
By giving a voice to the shrewish Wife of Bath and to Katherine of Padua, Chaucer and Shakespeare demonstrate their grasp (if not their personal views) of the proper role of gender in the ancient debate. Treats "Othello," "King Lear," "Measure for…
Simes, G. R.
Geraldine Barnes, John Gunn, Sonya Jensen, and Lee Jobling, eds. Words and Wordsmiths: A Volume for H. L. Rogers (Sydney: University of Sydney, 1989), pp. 91-112.
One of the most consistent strands of controversy has been Chaucer's reputation for the "bawdy" in CT. What has been objected to as "bawdy," "ribaldry," "wantonness," "scurrility," "incivility," and so on "has "shifted and changed over the…
Review article covering six recent books: B. Boyd's Variorum edition of PrT; R. Jordan's Chaucer's Poetics and the Modern Reader; L. Kendrick's Chaucerian Play; L. Koff's Chaucer and the Art of Storytelling; C. Lindahl's Earnest Games; and L.…
