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The Poet as Pilgrim: The Narrator of the 'General Prologue'
Gardiner, Alan.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 19-27.
Describes the narrator of the GP as "naïve but all-seeing," used variably by Chaucer to guide reader response and provoke unsettled reactions. Not wholly consistent, the narrator is a device that evokes "complex, contradictory attitudes" that seem…
Character and Caricature in Chaucer's 'General Prologue'
Cunningham, John E.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 29-37.
Explicates numerous details of GP to demonstrate Chaucer's techniques of characterization. Includes significant attention to the Wife of Bath, the Physician, the Host, and others.
Chaucer's Critique of the Church in the 'General Prologue'
Pinent, Pat.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 39-49.
Considers three groups of ecclesiastical figures in CT, categorizing them by religious role and descriptive technique: 1) members of religious orders (Prioress, Monk, and Friar), who the narrator "damns by faint praise and irony"; 2) servants of the…
The Shipman's Knife
Ellis, Mark Spencer.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 51-61.
Explicates the Shipman's knife in GP, and explores how similar details unfold to characterize the Canterbury pilgrims. Details of "aggression and assertion" recur in the descriptions, as do commercial concerns.
Chaucer's Two 'Corages': Moral Balance in the 'General Prologue'
Alson, Angus.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 63-70.
Argues that the balanced opposition between the sacred and the secular in the opening and closing sections of the GP encourages readers to be tolerant and cautious in judgment.
Chaucer's Art of Portraiture: Subject, Author and Reader
Saunders, Claire.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 72-80.
Gauges how subject, author, and reader "interact with varying degrees of subtlety in the GP descriptions of the pilgrims: the "snapshot" (Yeoman), idealization (Parson), caricature (Summoner), balance between ideal and caricature (Wife of Bath), and…
Ambiguous Icons: Chaucer's Knight, Parson and Plowman
Oliver, Paul.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 82-92.
Comments on several stylistic device of characterization in GP and the effects they produce: the Knight is earnest by obsolete, and spiritually ambiguous; the Parson, an exaggerated stereotype, cut off from people by lack of realistic details; the…
Boring Virtue and Interesting Vice: The Literary Conflict Between Morality and Vitality
Watts, Cedric.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 94-103.
Sketches a range of evaluative criteria (moral, social, hedonistic, materialistic, and artistic) to explore how in literature--and in the GP in particular--"moral judgements are largely subverted by artistic judgements," in part the result of the…
The 'General Prologue' as Prologue
Moseley, Charles.
Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, ed. Critical Essays on The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales (Harlow: Longman, 1989), pp. 105-18.
Surveys the narrative techniques of the GP as they set up and anticipate those of the entire CT: the suggestiveness of pilgrimage and frame narrative, the impressionistic variety of the pilgrims and their juxtapositions, the naïve but subjective…
Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota
[Ruud, Jay, ed.]
[Aberdeen, South Dakota: Northern State University, 1989.]
Twenty-one papers on CT by various authors. For individual essays, search for Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute under Alternative Title.
The Dumb, the Deaf, and the Insane and the Female . . .
Schafer, Judith K.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 1-12.
Surveys medieval attitudes towards women, with comments on Chaucer's depictions.
An Introduction to the Music of Chaucer's Time
Schilling, Arnold.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 13-23.
Introductory comments on late-medieval musical notation, melody and harmony, rhythm and meter, instruments, and forms, with notes for an accompanying tape recording.
Knighthood, Chaucer's Knight and Tale
Litsey, Barbara A.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 24-35.
Comments on medieval knighthood and the appropriateness of KnT to the Knight.
'Gradus Amoris': The Five Steps of Lechery
Olsen, Vicki.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 36-62.
Aligns the five fingers of lechery (ParsT 10. 852-64) with the conventions of courtly love and those of mystical love, using them to assess several lovers of CT (Palamon and Arcite of KnT, Nicholas and Absalon of MilT, and Aurelius of FranT).
A Discussion of Chaucer's 'The Prioress's Tale
Hauck, Comfort.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 63-72.
Comments on the anti-Semitism of PrT and suggests that it does not lessen the beauty of the tale.
It All Comes Together in 'The Merchant's Tale'
McMullen, Carol.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 73-83.
Argues that the "moral lesson" of MerT is "self-deception and spiritual blindness" which result from January's efforts to "create a paradise on earth."
A Review of Selected Criticism of Chaucer's 'Reeve's Tale'
Harms, Gary.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 84-93.
Comments on five critical essays that pertain to RvT.
The Friar as Pseudo Apostle in the 'Summoner's Tale'
Mauck, Deanna.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 94-103.
Locates in SumT several violations of William of Saint-Amour's claims about false friars.
Arthur Dimmesdale Meets the Pardoner
Thompson, Mary Kay.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 104-11.
Identifies parallels between Chaucer's Pardoner and Arthur Dimmesdale of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," without claiming influence.
The 'Clerk's Tale': A Literary Analysis
Birhanzel, Candace.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 112-25.
Comments on reading ClT as both "realistic and religious, tied to the character of . . . the Clerk."
The Wyf of Bath: Disciple of Narcissus
Fleming, Donna.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 128-34.
Reads WBP in light of a dictionary definition of "narcissism."
'The Wife of Bath's Tale' as a Romance
Struck, JoAnn.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 135-45.
Comments on romance conventions in WBT and its concern with "soveraynetee" and "maistrye."
Lessons from a Loathly Lady: The Universal Message of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale
Wuertz, Carol.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 146-57.
Argues that the "message" of WBPT is that all individuals are to be valued.
The Wife of Bath as Viewed from Her Prologue: A Study of Her Complexity
Marwitz, Will[ard].
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 158-75.
Comments on assessments of the Wife of Bath as either a "Scarlet Woman" or a "truly liberated woman," concluding that she is best seen as "complicated." Includes a series of "Student Challenges" as a study guide to WBP.
Teaching Chaucer's 'Prologue'
Berlin, Dorthea.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. [176]-85.
Lists several pedagogical activities that pertain to GP.
