Kimmelman, Burt Joseph.
Dissertation Abstracts International 52 (1991): 1741A.
Mentions Chaucer among poets (Guillem IX, Marcabru, Dante, and especially Langland) who helped develop the distinction between history and fiction and who showed themselves to be individuals, not for self-promotion but to identify themselves…
Kindrick, Robert, moderator.
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching, n.s., 2 (1991): 5-22.
Panelists (Larry Benson, John H. Fisher, Derek Pearsall, Alfred David) discuss recent difficulties and opportunities in teaching Chaucer, focusing on student interests and capabilities.
Kiser, Lisa J.
Hanover, N. H., and London: University Press of New England, 1991
Chaucer's epistemology is skeptical: he subverts written authority, obscures traditional distinctions between history and fiction, and questions the validity and representability of experience. Formalist analysis of narratorial voices discloses (1)…
Mann, Jill.
Atlantic Heights, N. J.: Humanities Press International, 1991.
Chaucer defines "woman" as the norm against which all human behavior is to be measured, representing women in ways that undermine traditional antifeminist categories. In HF, TC, and LGW, the antifeminist theme of betrayal is recast to reflect human…
Margherita, Gayle Margaret.
Dissertation Abstracts International 51 (1991): 4115A.
Applies Freudian and feminist theory to three extracanonical medieval texts, presenting them as the "unconscious" of works in the literary canon. Also analyzes BD and TC.
Mills, Malwyn, Jennifer Fellows, and Carol M. Meade, eds.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991.
Papers read at the first meeting (1988) of the Society for the Study of Medieval Romance, ranging in chronological concern from the twelfth to the fiftennth centuries. Included are general discussions of MS Ashmole 61 and the Percy Folio. …
Morse, Ruth.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Medieval notions of historical and literary truth derive from classical rhetorical tradition and differ from modern, empirically based notions of factuality. Basing her argument on a description of education in rhetoric, Morse demonstrates that…
North, J. D.
Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeling Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks 54 (1991): 154-62.
Derived from North's book, Chaucer's Universe (Oxford, 1988), this article argues that Chaucer's imagination was illuminated by astrological and astronomical knowledge of an unusually high quality.
Ostade, Ingrid Tieken Boon van, and John Frankis, eds.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991.
Sixteen essays encompass the interpretation of textual cruxes in Middle English, lexicography in the past and present, current and older problems in English usage, and the history of English spelling.
For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search…
Whaley, Diana.
Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade and John Frankis, ed. Language Usage and Description: Studies Presented to N. E. Osselton on the Occasion of His Retirement (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991), pp. 5-16.
The phrase "Nowelis Flood" near the end of MilT has commonly been taken as a malapropism, an instance of the carpenter's complacent ignorance. Whaley tests this assumption against the evidence of manuscript readings, meter, and literary contexts;…
Patterson, Lee.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.
Chaucer approaches history as a subject and human beings as individualized subjects within history, examining the medieval view of history as degeneration from an ideal and developing the modernist, humanist view of history. In Anel, Boethianism…
Chaucer used English as a revolutionary gesture: "the vernacular destroyed the intellectual and political control of the aristocrats of church and state." Potter addresses several 14th-century English concerns: aristocratic control exercised…
Reuters, Anna Hubertine.
Frankfurt am Main Peter Lang, 1991.
Classifies some thirty English medtrical romances according to several categories of friendship or love: tales of masculinefrinedship, of male/female mutual love, of marriage, and of the advances of forward fairies, heroines, or heroes. These…
Root, Jerry.
Dissertation Abstracts International 52 (1991): 2373A-2374A.
Following Foucault, Root examines the theory that patristic tradition and ecclesiastical practice eventually permitted confessional self-representation, as seen especially in WBT, Livre du voir dit, and Libro di buen Amor.
Sturges, Robert S.
Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991.
Stressing the role of the reader in finding meaning, Sturges traces the development of a "belief in an indeterminacy of literary meaning." Alongside Neo-Platonism and the "directed vision" typical of the early Middle Ages, a "new mind set emphasized…
Torti's introduction explores the Christian and classical precedents for mirror metaphors in late-medieval English literature and surveys medieval tradition. Subsequent chapters discuss mirror imagery in Lydgate's Temple of Glass, Hoccleve's…
Examines the imagery, formulas, structure, and audience appeal of a number of Middle English sermons and sermon cycles, exploring their influence on Chaucer in Mel, ParsT, PardT, and NPT. The aural element of sermons is reflected in Chaucer's poems;…
Wolterbeek, Marc.
New York, Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press, 1991.
Defines and traces the development of three genres of early medieval Latin comic literature: ridicula ("funny stories in rhythmic verse"), nugae ("trifles" of learned poets), and satyrae (vevality satires). Such tales, especially ridicula,…
Wurtele, Douglas J.
Fifteenth-Century Studies 18 (1991): 315-43.
Argues that a "climate" of social and political treachery prevailed in Chaucer's England, considers its effects on Chaucer's work, and surveys the poet's incorporation of the theme of treachery in his major poems.
Allen, Mark.
South Central Review 8 (1991): 36-49.
The imagery of falling reinforces CT's penitential motif at the end of PardT, in NPP, in ManP, and in Ret, affectively leading the reader "through art to morality."
Andrew, Malcolm, ed.
Toronto, and Buffalo, N. Y.: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
Anthologizes twenty-one previously published essays and extracts from longer discussions. The pieces were originally published between 1809 and 1987, although all but one are from the twentieth century. Topics range from dramatic criticism to…
Astell, Ann W.
Raymond-Jean Frontain and Jan Wojcik, eds. Old Testament Women in Western Literature (Conway, Ark.: UCA Press, 1991), pp. 92-107.
Gregory's Moralia in Job not only associates Job's wife with Eve as the archetypal temptress but also links her voice to the feminine speaking of poetry, with its imagistic power to move, delight, and (mis)instruct. Chaucer refashions her in CT in…
Suggests that Chaucer identifies the virtuous women in MLT, ClT, PhyT, and Mel with one of the four cardinal virtues to enhance the characteristics found in his sources.
