Exemplifies how several features of the characterization of Chaunticleer in NPT are "firmly grounded in medieval natural history," particularly his "uxoriousness, regal pride, and choleric temperament," as well as his connections with preaching, all…
Manaf, Nor Faridah Abdul.
Islamic Quarterly 46 : 247-58, 2002.
Tallies similarities among PF, the Persian Mant̓iq al-T̓ayr, and Peter Brook's theatrical adaptation, "Conference of Birds." The author comments on titles, frame, and universality of message.
Describes how Chaucer reaches beyond the phallocentrism and "human parochialism" of his time by giving voice to the feminine and the animal in PF, even though the poem ends with a return to masculinist, human-centered subjectivity.
Argues that the category of "allegorical animal poems" disguises the fact that such poems "simultaneously hide and reveal the contested nature of the boundary between humans and animals." Comments on fable tradition, the nature of allegory, and…
Bryant, Brantley L.
Isle: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26 (2019): 1006-37.
Ecocritical examination of the depiction of the sea in the Ceyx and Alcyone episode of BD, focusing on its shorelessness, comparing it with analogous accounts and with the representation of water in John of Trevisa's "On the Properties of Things,"…
Kordecki, Lesley.
ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 29 (2022): 570-82.
Argues that the eagle in HF "represents poetry," manifest in its "uncanny perception," its ability to "uplift" the narrator, and its concern with sound and transformative power.
Giaccherini, Enrico.
Italianistica: Rivista di letteratura italiana 18:2-3 (1989): 347-56.
Examines "the different use to which Chaucer and Boccaccio have put certain raw narrative material belonging to the tradition of popular comic literature" of their cultural heritage--i.e., Chaucer's use of sources in RvT as opposed to Boccaccio's in…
Argues that Boccaccio's "Decameron" influenced MerT deeply, even though it may not be the primary source of the plot. The characterizations of MerT (especially the "mental blindness" of January) are more like those in "Decameron" 7.9 than those in…
Evaluates the evidence for the proposition that Sercambi wrote two versions of his tales--the "Novelliero" and the "Novelle," arguing that that this evidence is ambiguous and that it offers no concrete support for the notion that Sercambi may have…
Scholars need to reassess the extent of Sercambi's literary influence. A survey of some analogues of the framework and tales of his "Novelle" prove conclusively that his work was imitated in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. Parallels in ShT and…
Several motifs and verbal echoes among MilT, RvT, and "The Decameron" strengthen the case for "memorial borrowing" and invite the invention of a new critical term for Chaucer's poems: "metrical novellas."
Fontecedro, Emanuela Andreoni.
Italica 88 (2011): 335-52.
Considers intertextual relations between Petrarch's "Africa" and Cicero's "Somnium Scipionis" as dream visions, focusing on the medieval poet's developments of the ancient poet's concern with fame and contempt for the world. Closes with comments on…
Fowler, Elizabeth.
Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2003.
Fowler explores literary character and characterization as processes of the reader's engagement with "social persons" posited by a given text through various habituated devices and understood in light of various historical contexts-psychological,…
Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate, and Timea Szell, eds.
Ithaca, N. Y: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Adopting a variety of critical approaches, the fourteen essays range from detailed analyses of religious discourse to theoretical inquiries into the forces that shaped ideas of sanctity. Essays discuss representations of sainthood in the Middle…
Grossvogel, David L.
Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1968.
Explores the "complex dialectic between the author and his reader" as the defining feature of the novel as a literary form, offering case studies in a range of works, medieval to modern. Includes a discussion of TC (pp. 44-73) which focuses on…
Thiébaux, Marcelle.
Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974.
Traces the varieties of the stag-hunt motif in the art and literature of the Middle Ages, including classical roots, considering hunting manuals, imagery and fictive presentations, and allegorical uses. Includes recurrent references to Chaucer's…
Cohen, Jeremy.
Ithaca, N.Y. and London: Cornell University Press, 1989.
Surveys the historical understanding and application of Gen. 1.28, tracing its "career" in Scripture, its interpretations in Hebrew and Christian traditions, and its roles in such literature as Bernard Silvestris's "Cosmographia," Alain de Lille's…
Doob, Penelope Reed.
Ithaca, N.Y., and London : Cornell University Press, 1990.
Considers models, taxonomy, metaphor, etymologies, and verbal implications of the labyrinth; mazes in medieval art and architecture; moral labyrinths; and textual labyrinths in medieval literature. Examines Chaucer's use of the labyrinth in BD, CT,…
Astell, Ann W.
Ithaca, N.Y., and London : Cornell University Press, 1999.
A series of studies that explore how William Langland, John Gower, the Gawain poet, Chaucer, and Sir Thomas Malory all "practiced an allegorical art, partly as a result of their similar educational backgrounds and also because political pressures…
Salu, Mary, and Robert T. Farrell, eds.
Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 1979.
Includes Tolkien's obituary from the London "Times" (3 Sept. 1973), his "Valedictory Address" at Oxford (3 June 1959), a handlist of his writings, and fourteen essays by various authors about Tolkien, Old and Middle English literature, and Tolkien's…
Olson, Glending.
Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Later medieval medical theories and ethical commentaries recognized the benefits of literary pleasure. Olson's aim is "to redress an imbalance in modern scholarship that fosters, intentionally or not, the notion that medieval literary thought had…
