Browse Items (16382 total)

Chaucer's frequent references to nagging wives and henpecked husbands have less to do with his personal views than with his awareness of audience; women as well as men could share the misogynistic joke because in Pauline theory the shrew was "some…

Argues that the portrait of Chaucer in Rosenbach MS 1083/30 was most likely copied from Harley MS 4866 in the early eighteenth century for John Murray. Both manuscripts are of Hoccleve's "Regement of Princes."

Traces the changing reception of the literary images of the plowman and the shepherd from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. In the fourteenth century, the plowman begins to shift from representing such values as hard work and thrift to…

Identifies classical and medieval uses and understandings of "tragedy." For Aristotle, tragedy was a serious story, although one that might end happily. The notion of "irretrievable misfortune" came to dominate the late-classical use of the term.

Astr shows how technical writers can "judiciously incorporate into their writing such central rhetorical components as coherent structure, appropriate content, accurate and precise descriptions, personable tone, effective metadiscourse, and varied…

Describes the "host of moral issues for high school readers to consider" in MilT and WBPT and argues for an ethic of inclusion rather than exclusion in selecting books.

Chaucer's and Langland's depictions of clergy are rooted in the "biblical topos of contrastive portraits for emulation and rejection," reflecting the medieval belief that church reform depended on the renewal of the clergy. Chaucer's Parson and…

Surveys the life and works of Petrus Alfonsi and the reception of his two major works: the anti-Jewish "Dialogi contra Iudaeos" and his collection of tales and wisdom literature, "Disciplina clericus." Tolan briefly mentions Mel as evidence of…

Eight historical and legal essays by various hands, including two of potential value to Chaucer studies, especially treatments of WBPT: Barbara A. Hanawalt, "Remmarriage as an Option for Rural Widows in Late Medieval England"; and Richard M.…

In the GP sketch and in MLPT, Chaucer characterizes his Man of Law as one who does not recognize Divine design behind the pattern of natural events, eternal law behind natural law. The Man of Law errs in focusing on temporal events, failing to…

Pragmatic analysis suggests that the Wife of Bath in WBP and the loathly lady in WBT flout the "Quality and Quantity maxims of the Cooperative Principle" and the "maxims of Tact" of the "Politeness Principle." Targets of Chaucer's satire, the two…

Pasolini's reading of the Wife of Bath as "a rebellious heretic who is yet a sexual and clownish bully" challenges more sympathetic "readings" of the Wife rather than re-creating her Chaucerian self-presentation. The film "I racconti di Canterbury"…

Observes parallels between WBT and the narrative of the matriarch Sogolon in the African (Mandingo) epic "Sundiata." Each includes a quest, a knowledgeable old hag, shape-shifting, and a version of rape. Such parallels enable us to "engage in a…

In MerT, Chaucer presents a version of the Edenic Fall that emphasizes the roles of language and writing in seduction. Especially in the pear-tree episode, the Merchant's "dark vision" dramatizes Augustinian commentary on the Fall as an abuse of…

In GP, Sq-FranL, and FranP, Chaucer characterizes the Franklin as obsessed "with appearances and good feeling." FranT manifests these obsessions and exposes the teller's "superficial understanding of 'gentilesse'."

Explains PardT 6.406 to mean "to be damned" in light of the figurative associations of brambles with sins and the picking of fruit with spiritually dangerous activity, corroborated in exegetical commentary and other medieval literature.

Two tales in CT define Chaucer's role as an "implied author" and reflect his double vocation as a poet and diplomat. Th is a "brilliant example of his mastery as a poet"; Mel expresses his "ideological premises," anticipating the closing of the…

Brief biography of the first translator of CT into Spanish (ca. 1920). (In Spanish.)

Statistical analyses, including charted data, of variant readings of CT in (1) a given single tale in pairs of manuscripts; and (2) paired tales in single manuscripts.

Perhaps because of their proximity in time (fifty years apart), Chaucer and the "Arcipreste de Hita" present love in similar ways. Both depict lovers' laments, the pleasures of the flesh, nuns willing to have love affairs, and so forth.

Examines the word "red," its connotations, and the evolution of related color words such as "crimson" and "peach" from Old English through 1900, focusing on Shakespeare and Chaucer.

Surveys nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century French Chaucer criticism, from early appropriations of Chaucer into French literary tradition to recognition of his importance in anticipating the Renaissance.

Thirty literary and linguistic essays from the SELIM IV conference (September 1991), on topics ranging from "Beowulf" to Robin Hood and including discussions of lyrics, drama, dream visions, and various individual works and themes. For essays that…

Surveys "how painting and sculpture have been represented by poets ranging from Homer's time to our own," focusing on Homer, Ovid, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer and Gower, Spenser and Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Browning, Auden, William…

Outlines the aspects of Chaucer's works that are usually regarded as characteristic of twentieth-century British modernism: innovation and convention-breaking, fusion of genres, colloquial idioms, metrical license, dramatic monologue, poetic…