Dunton-Downer, Leslie Linam.
Dissertation Abstracts International 53 (1992): 1508A.
In contrast with Augustinian models, the poetic use of obscenity provides a nontraditional method of self-definition. For Rutebeuf, the obscene served to establish his own poetic identity; for Chaucer, it provided a means for characters to establish…
Thomas Becket translated the Decret de Gratien. As chancellor,he (like the Man of Law) must have known "caas and domes all, / That from the tyme of king William were falle" and "every statut . . .pleyn by rote." He must have used this mastery to…
McKinley, Kathryn Lillian.
Dissertation Abstracts International 53 (1992): 1155A.
Though Ovid's influence on Jean de Meun and Chaucer has long been recognized as far as mythology and irony are concerned,Ovid's "neoteric" narrative techniques also provided models for the two writers; cf. Chaucer's BD, TC, and WBT.
Nolan, Barbara.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Nolan analyzes continental verse narratives from which Chaucer borrowed for KnT and TC--namely, the Roman de Troie, Roman de Thebes, Roman d'Eneas, and Boccaccio's Filostrato and Teseida. TC uses Ovidian fine amor as a "fulcrum," and history as a…
Benson, C. David.
Modern Language Quarterly 53 (1992): 23-40.
Describes the writers' approaches to their source in Chaucer: Lydgate as a "scholarly commentator" and Henryson as a poet who exploits "Chaucer's innovative literary devices" in an original way. …
Berry, Craig Allen.
Dissertation Abstracts International 53 (1992): 1920A.
As poets representing themselves in their works and as civil servants, Chaucer and Spenser shared much. Instead of misreading his predecessor, Spenser reveals more grasp than previously noted of Th, SqT, and PF.
Fisher, John H.
Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1992.
Explores how Chaucer expanded the boundaries of the English literary idiom. Chaucer's innovations capitalize on the rise of a new audience, a class of bureaucrats and businessmen who shared his education at the inns of court and chancery. Details…
Potter, Russell Alan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 52 (1992): 3276A.
Chaucer's works have been treated variously through the centuries: vernacular text teaching a diverse audience in debates over "Englishing" the Bible; both model and subject for translation to the Neoclassics; basis for study in the nineteenth…
Sherman, Mark A.
Dissertation Abstracts International 53 (1992): 163A.
The two great poems of Chaucer and Spenser employ poetics even closer to each other than previously recognized. Just as Th in contrast to KnT revises perception of CT, Spenser's Thopas subverts orthodox interpretation. Both poems, by deferring…
Stanley, E. G.
Notes and Queries 237 (1992): 278-80.
Discovers a Chaucer allusion in Nathan ben saddi's (i.e., Robert Dodsley's) The Chronicle of the Kings of England (London, 1740), which was written in pastiche style.
Gaylord, Alan T.
Chaucer Yearbook 1 (1992): 87-109.
Riches of tone and ambiguities encourage us to read Chaucer's poetry silently. Oral performances can illuminate and entertain, but they limit perception of range and depth of meaning. Gaylord examines unpunctuated portions of the Prioress's sketch,…
Especially in the Eagle's speech on sound in HF, Chaucer's verse reflects his concern not with the monological, authoritative, written aspects of speech but with speech as an exploratory, vital, interactive process, recently explored by such…
Burrow, J. A., and Thorlac Turville-Petre, eds.
Oxford and Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1992. 2d ed. 1996. 3rd ed. 2005.
An introduction to Middle English language, designed as a textbook with discussions of history, phonology, lexis, grammar, syntax, and meter. Includes a reader of fourteen (non-Chaucerian) texts, with brief notes and glossary.
Explores the relation between language and psychology, arguing that Chaucer's increasing use of French loan-words throughout his poetic career reflects a growth in conceptual richness, a microcosm of the growth of English, culturally and…
Richardson, Peter Kent.
Dissertation Abstracts International 52 (1992): 2936A.
In medieval verse (e.g., Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Horn, and Chaucer's works), tense and aspect of verbs prove more significant than previously recognized. Rather than serving demands of meter and rhyme, Chaucer's verbal…
Rothwell, W[illiam].
Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 74 (1992): 3-28.
Examines thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Anglo-French, noting that Chaucer was steeped in an Anglo-French environment. This very Anglicized French--a second language of culture used to keep records--was the French Chaucer knew best, and his lexis…
Blake, N. F., ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Chapters by various authors treat phonology and morphology, syntax, dialectology, lexis and semantics, literary language, and onomastics. Includes an introduction by Blake, a bibliography, an index, and a glossary of linguistic terms. The chapter…
Blamires, Alcuin, ed. With Karen Pratt and C. W. Marx.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
Documents the details and development of medieval generalizations about women, translating from biblical, classical, patristic, Latin, and vernacular works a wide variety of antifeminist and profeminist selections, each with a brief introduction. …
