Browse Items (16382 total)

Spurr cites A. E. Housman's lecture "The Name and Nature of Poetry" and calls upon the makers of the Australian National Curriculum not to excise CT and other canonical texts from the program.

Considers Chaucer and Lydgate's appropriations of medical discourse (as in GP and KnT) and their introduction of such discourse into the larger English literary culture, including the ramifications for the history of medicine in England.

Suggests parallels between medieval literature and African-American literature, with particular attention to Layamon and August Wilson (stories of origin), Gloria Naylor's "Linden Hills" and Dante (a suppressive desire for harmony), and Naylor's…

Considers representations of the Flemish in such works as "Piers Plowman," the Paston letters, and CT, with a particular eye toward the use of negative stereotypes and the use of Flemish people as an Other for the purpose of developing an English…

Posits a connection between literature, subjectivity, and the diagnosis of medical symptoms in the late Middle Ages. Uses CT and other literary and medical works.

Arguing for the prominence of the Biblical account of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac in medieval culture, the author observes the presence of children as sacrificial figures in MkT, PrT, PhyT, MLT, and ClT, and notes the rewards of faith in those…

Explores use of temporality ("the experience of living in time") in CT and Gower's "Confessio Amantis," suggesting that CT is present-centered and considers the relationship of past to present, while Gower "focuses on the present as it becomes the…

Argues that Middle English writers employ gendered terms at moments when they are probing new ideas about women's roles; writers "invented womanhood" to describe women's experiences beyond their relation to men. KnT and ClT use gendered language to…

Examines the early editions of Chaucer (Caxton-Speght), and argues that editorial direction may have led to an emphasis on Chaucer's moral "gravitas," at the expense of attention to his comedic aspects. The reception of those texts, in turn, may have…

Haweis's book (1876) included edited versions of six of the CT and four shorter poems, in Middle English and translation. Addressing mainly an audience of boys, Haweis placed special emphasis on the theme of friendship, both in the poetry and in…

Through Harry Bailly in CT, Chaucer explores the literary tastes of his new audience. Although the Host's interpretations of Chaucer's tales are usually wrong-headed, Chaucer uses the Host to suggest appropriate audience reactions to various…

Discusses temporality and "cultural imaginings" of time in Lydgate, Hoccleve, and Chaucer. Refers to Chaucer's use of narrative and seasonal time and memory in CT, BD, PF, HF, and Astr.

Uses Chaucer, Spenser, Homer, Virgil, and Bunyan as test specimens in the presentation of allegory as a vision of superimposed frames of reference.

Examines various codes by which homosocial relationships were allowed to develop without violation of sodomy taboos. Uses as a case study the relationship between Troilus and Pandarus in TC.

Includes discussion of Rita Copeland's representation of Chaucer as an author intending to supersede previous texts; where Chaucer would supplant classical texts, Langland is presented as attempting to conserve and extend scriptural/liturgical texts.

Deploys Chaucer as part of an examination of the use of the Trojan/Brutus myth in British national historiography.

Examines the role of the avenger in several medieval works, including RvT and Mel.

Mentions Hoccleve's role in establishing Chaucer as the prototypical English writer in the course of a larger discussion of Hoccleve's negotiation of the relationship between author and reader.

Assuming a consistent narrative voice across the Chaucer canon, this study treats Chaucer's use of animal, specifically, avian, discourse as a means of exploring subjectivity. The author emphasizes the role of non-humans and women in "challenging…

Building on recent studies related to space and epistemology, this study argues that Chaucer, as well as the "Pearl"-poet and author of "The Cloud of Unknowing," take a pedagogical stance in their writing and "proffer a space from which or by means…

Examines Chaucer's use of classical mythology from the perspective of how it is reinterpreted, sometimes following Neoplatonism (through St Augustine), and sometimes through other allegorical and moralizing reading.

Argues that Chaucer requires readers to actively engage with the text as "active participators in the generation of meaning." Gillespie claims that Chaucer's role is more of a commentator rather than an "auctore," because he is as much a "product of…

Uses Maghfield's account book of mercantile and monetary transactions (1390-95) to explore the "ways in which mercantile culture and the 'new literacies' associated with credit and commerce contributed centrally to the development of Ricardian…

Contemplates Chaucer's concern with and depictions of therapeutic "intersubjectvity" in light of modern cognitive theory and evolutionary psychology, particularly as expressed by Brian Boyd. Chaucer's "clinical sensibility" (50) is evident in his…

Mentions Chaucer (WBP) while discussing the rise of experience as an acceptable authority in the writing of female mystics, supplanting a previous exclusive reliance on traditional authority.