Browse Items (16381 total)

Draws on Scog to try to establish a picture of Scogan himself. Scogan is the subject of the article rather than Chaucer.

Describes the use of select Chaucerian works as part of a four- or five-week unit in an undergraduate introduction to literature.

Edits a selection from CT, with text based on Robinson's 1957 edition, modified in light of Manly and Rickert's collations. Includes complete versions of GP, KnT, MilT, RvT, WBT, FrT, SumT, ClT, MerT, FranT, PardT, PrT, NPT, and Ret, with summaries…

Surveys and summarizes critical assessments of Chaucer's Pardoner and PardPT from ca. 1940-1970, observing trends and emphases. Then offers a reading of the Pardoner as an extravagant "put-on" who deliberately creates an outrageous personality for…

Parodies patristic criticism by reading Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" as an indictment of concupiscent love, drawing recurrent comparisons between the structure and imagery of Twain's novel and BD.

Reinforces studies of structural and thematic order in KnT, identifying a threefold pattern of ordering principles: a backdrop natural order of cycles, rituals, folk customs; the noble social ordering of chivalry and tournament; and the universal,…

Discusses alchemy in Chaucer's CYT, Jonson's "The Alchemist," and Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

Investigates uses of the words of address "heren," "herken," "herknen," "listen," and "listenen" throughout CT to find out differences of usage among them. Points out the peculiarity in the choices of such words in Th and discusses Chaucer's…

Places CT in the transitional period from oral to literal culture, and argues that the change of vocabulary from "herken" in Th's initial sections to "listen" in its third fitt indicates different functions of these sections in Chaucer's parody of…

Appreciates WBP as a representation of autobiographical storytelling. Argues that the Wife of Bath's focus on oral self-expression presents her as a powerful female character standing against the male-dominant literate culture.

Identifies general comparisons between modern Japanese and medieval European pilgrimages, with reference to CT.

Examines the women in Chaucer's fabliaux in connection with the antifeminist tradition. Hamaguchi argues that Chaucer's view of women was complex, partly affected by the antifeminist tradition yet partly sympathetic to the feminist position.

Explores why Chaucer made the Wife of Bath an ideal wife after she became physically "somdel deef," tracing the meaning and effect of "deef" in the context of her revolt against the antifeminist tradition. In Japanese.

Ironically, the key-words "hoolynesse" and "dotage" suggest the gap between January's view of marriage and his actual married life.

Explores why Chaucer connected the theme of marriage with a fabliau of a pear-tree story, observing January's view of marriage and his actual married life.

The verbal play on "debt" is elaborate and systematic in ShT, clarifying the social role and response of the wife.

Argues that BD satisfies the principal features of the consolatio, while recognizing the poem's dream-vision characteristics. Examines dialogue, the frame, the role of narrator-dreamer as narrator-therapist who leads the Black Knight to Blanche--a…

The Black Plague resulted in economic advantages for townsmen and peasant women, enabling them to be active and powerful.

Close feminist examination of Dorigen's complaint in FranT indicates that the Franklin may be ambivalent toward her.

Postcolonial analysis of the Dido account in LGW reveals that when Dido accuses Aeneas of ruining her reputation, Chaucer simultaneously accuses Virgil of "epistemic imperialism," a function of the "unreliability of representation." Hamaguchi…

Explores the "postcolonial uneasiness visible" in KnT, particularly in Hippolyta's subversive mimicry in the face of efforts by Theseus and the Knight to westernize her "Amazon-ness." Emelye's powerful gaze upon the victorious Arcite reveals similar…

Eight previously printed essays, seven on Chaucer and one on Shakespeare's Cressida. For the essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Chaucer and Women under Alternative Title.

Chaucer's descriptions of Alison and of Absolon's love of her in MilT parody the courtly diction and conventions found in "Alysoun" of the Harley lyrics. Possibly, Chaucer was influenced by the lyric.

MkP reflects the Monk's anxiety about cross-dressers such as Zenobia, whom he orientalizes in MLT as a monstrous threat to traditional authority. Eventually humiliated and punished, Zenobia trades her helmet for a woman's headdress.

Applies postcolonial theory to explore how Chaucer represents non-European women as Other in both gender and culture and how Chaucer reflects his own position as a poet and his career in historical context. Treats KnT, MLT, SqT, MkT, HF, and LGW.