Minnis, A. J.
Roy Eriksen, ed. Contexts of the Pre-Novel Narrative: The European Tradition (Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994), pp. 153-83.
Chaucer's adjustments of his source materials in LGW produce narratives in which "Marriage, whether secured or desired, motivates and ennobles all the deaths for love." Experimenting with creating archetypically false men, Chaucer idealizes female…
Quinn, William A.
Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1994.
Explores the humor and "tonal delights" of LGW, examining the poem as a script for oral performance; argues that the F version was written for oral presentation; the G version, a revision, for manuscript publication.
Breeze, Andrew.
Review of English Studies, n.s., 45 (1994): 63-69.
Chaucer's harpist, Glascurion (HF 1208), is Gwydion, son of Don. Various sound changes can account for Chaucer's "hearing" of Glascurion, suggesting a lost tale about Gwydion known to Chaucer and his audience.
Harwood, Britton J.,and Gillian R. Overing, eds.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Although criticism on gender and class has suggested their mutual exclusion, this collection of eight essays focuses on their intersections. Three articles on Old English examine the elegies, "Judith," and the "Exeter Book," while those on Middle…
Harwood, Britton J.
Britton J. Harwood and Gillian R. Overing, eds. Class and Gender in Early English Literature: Intersections (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 95-111.
An analogy between gender and class applied to HF reveals that Lady Fame assumes a typical paternal role in naming the tidings that exit the House of Rumor. Although Chaucer's source is Ovid, he divides Fame's house along strict class lines--the…
Vankeerbergen, Bernadette C.
Medieval Perspectives 9 (1994): 158-69.
Elements of the poem--dream vision, narrator's self-mockery, genre, satire, absence of authority--contribute to uncertainty of interpretation. That the "mechanics of uncertainty" inhere in all of these elements reinforces skepticism as the poem's…
Boffey, Julia.
Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox, eds. Literary Aspects of Courtly Culture: Selected Papers from the Seventh Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1994), pp. 113-21.
Examines the provenance and contents of several fifteenth-century manuscripts, arguing that such compilations reflect interest in Chaucer's dream poems, acquaintance with a range of English and French texts, and a "lively awareness of current…
Burger, Glenn.
English Studies in Canada 20 (1994): 153-70.
Queer theory, by emphasizing provisionality, enables us to think of sexuality and culture differently; it provides a means for gay/lesbian/bi- readers to engage Chaucer. Contemporary constructions of sex, gender, and sexuality can be used as…
Carruthers, Leo, ed.
Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1994.
Fourteen essays on heroism and anti-heroes in "Beowulf" and other Old English poetry, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and the works of Dunbar, Malory, and others. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Heroes and Heroines in Medieval…
Desmond, Marilynn.
Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
Surveys understandings of Dido--e.g., historical, Virgilian, Ovidian--and examines what her medieval presentations tell us about intertextual relations, gender attitudes, and the "reading positions" of various medieval authors, including Chaucer,…
Economou, George D.
Carl Woodring and James Shapiro, eds. The Columbia History of British Poets (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 55-80.
Surveys Chaucer's works and their reception, emphasizing his innovation and experimentation. Introduced by a brief section on Chaucer's reading, discussions of each of his major works summarize the sources Chaucer used and his adaptations of them.
Edwards, Robert R., ed.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1994.
Twelve essays by different hands address the "poetic art that emerges in late medieval English narrative out of multiple historical contexts." Treating Langland, Chaucer, and other late-medieval poets, the collection includes an introduction by the…
Evans, Ruth, and Lesley Johnson, eds.
London and New York: Routledge, 1994.
Ten essays by various hands, including an introduction by the editors, plus previously published pieces by Mary Carruthers (with a new Afterword), Sheila Delany, and Susan Schibanoff. Topics include Christine de Pizan, Margery Kempe, "Piers Plowman,"…
Fernandez, Francisco; Miguel Fuster; and Juan Jose Calvo, eds.
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1994.
Twenty-nine papers read during the Seventh International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Valencia, Spain, 21-26 September 1992. The papers range from general interest to phonology and writing, morphology and syntax, lexicology and semantics,…
Fuog, Karin Edie Capri.
Dissertation Abstracts International 55 (1994): 959A.
Although Renaissance Scholars have tended to deny subjectivity in medieval literature, medievalists have shown that Chaucer develops it. So does the author of "The Kingis Quair," an important but generally neglected work.
Gallacher, Patrick J.
Chaucer Review 28 (1994): 216-36.
Chaucer's system of corporeal signs and gestures suggests a continual praise and blame of the flesh. Movement (or lack thereof) in CT is associated with sickness and health; the body is treated as subject and object, as an "affective medium of…
Godden, Malcolm, Douglas Gray, and Terry Hoad, eds.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
Eleven essays by various authors, assessing materials from the eighth to the fourteenth century. Most essays pertain to the development of language and literary forms; Chaucer mentioned "passim."
Jost, Jean E.,ed.
New York and London: Garland, 1994.
Nineteen essays by various hands, plus an introduction. Nine of the pieces are previously published works or excerpts by Howard Patch, G. K. Chesterton, Paul G. Ruggiers, Thomas A. Garbaty, Derek Pearsall, Alfred David, Alan T. Gaylord, A. Booker…
Justice, Steven.
Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1994.
New-Historical exploration of the relations between late-medieval vernacular literacy and the insurgency of 1381 (Peasants' Revolt). Focuses on six brief texts concerning leaders of the revolt, treating their production, implications, and relations…
Kang, Ji-Soo.
Dissertation Abstracts International 55 (1994): 274A
Discusses tensions between disorder and coherence in the conclusions of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "Pearl," "Cleannes," and "Patience," contrasted to conclusions of works by Chaucer.
Kawasaki, Masatoshi.
Journal of British and American Literature (Komazawa University) 29 (1994): 11-24.
Exploring the meaning of time in medieval English literature, Kawasaki suggests that there are two time dimensions in Chaucer, relating them to Chaucer's doubleness or ambiguity. In Japanese.
Butterfield, Ardis.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 16 (1994): 3-27.
Reads BD and Machaut's "Jugement dou Roy de Navarre" as "counter pastorals"--works that both disturb the superficial idealization of pastoral poetry and replicate the social tension latent in the form, a social tension that also reflects contemporary…
The references to chess in BD are confused because Chaucer seems not to have had any firsthand knowledge of the game, his source being not a proper handbook but the "Roman de la Rose." Applying the chess metaphor from Jean de Meun to a dissimilar…
Cruxes in BD--how it can function both universally and individually, why it was composed some years after Blanche's death--can be better understood by placing the poem in the context of tomb sculpture. At the time Chaucer was writing,Henry Yevele…
Hardman, Phillipa.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 93 (1994): 204-27.
The portrait of the Man in Black of BD reflects a traditional "imago pietatis," the Man of Sorrows. So, to a lesser degree, do the Falcon of SqT and Criseyde.
