Browse Items (16435 total)

Considers Criseyde, Troilus, and Pandarus as figures of Spirit, Psyche, and Self respectively, suggesting that the interactions among the three characters in TC depict a "false theology" that is made right in Troilus's translation.

Unlike modern thinkers who pose Islam as an "Other" in opposition to Christianity, Dante and Chaucer depict the continuities of the two religions. In "Divine Comedy," Dante disapproves of Islam but incorporates it into his cosmic scheme. In MLT,…

Assesses John Lydgate as "the premier learned war poet of the later English Middle Ages," exploring his "Troy Book" and "Seige of Thebes" for the ways they depict the violence of war. Includes recurrent attention to Lydgate's sources, Chaucer's TC,…

The puppy in BD is not only a guide, but also a complex symbol of psychological and literary connectivity.

Explores the "shared practice" of late-medieval English scribes, particularly their adherence to "a negotiated set of norms and procedures" that constitutes their "community of practice." Exemplifies such practice by describing the orthography and…

Composed in the context of the bubonic plague, BD encourages rejection of despair.

Traces the "growing fascination" with Chaucer, his language, and his works in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, linking it with the cultural imagining of Chaucer "as a predecessor to" Victorian "preferred aesthetics, ideologies, and…

Collette explores interest in "mediation and moderation" in vernacular texts, commenting on the vernacular as a way to make learning more broadly available, on "the mean" in such texts as Nicole Oresme's translations of Aristotle, and on Chaucer's…

Although the love affair between Criseyde and Troilus is a medieval invention, Criseyde had a significant literary ancestry. In Latin versions of the Iliad, in Ovid's Heroides and Ars amatoria, and in the later romance tradition,…

Defines the French literary topos of the good wife, wherein "female virtue grounded in prudence and self-control benefits the immediate domestic and also the wider public spheres." Reflected in Philippe's "Le livre de la vertu du sacrement de…

Assesses Criseyde's fearfulness in the context of "late-medieval accounts of the psychology and ethics of fear," arguing that Chaucer presents her not as a "culpably fickle female" but as an (equally essentialized) "attractively fearful female."

Despite differences in genre, these narratives include a father who "constructs the circumstances in which he could marry his daughter." Pointedly excluded from consideration in MLP, paternal incest posed in ClT (between Walter and his daughter) is…

Examines how the epithets and titles applied to Mary disperse and fictionalize her powerful humanity. Discusses various Marian lyrics, including ABC, in which Chaucer subtly but significantly alters the theology of Marian praise.

Assesses the functions of prologues in Middle English literature, commenting on nuances of "prohemye," "prefacyon," "preamble," etc., and exploring how prefatory works "disorganiz[e] the categories of center and periphery, 'theoria' and 'praxis'."…

Provides a history of vernacular writing in English from ca. 1300-1500, reducing traditional emphasis on the importance of Chaucer and his works by adding complementary emphasis on religious writing--Lollard and anti-Lollard, "Piers Plowman," works…

Summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) encoding for electronic texts in the humanities, advocating a middle ground between "realist" and "anti-realist" theories of what can and should be represented. Expresses…

Lesson plan for teaching GP in high school classes (senior level), introducing the four humors and using a personality test for students.

Describes classroom activities for studying Chaucer and the "clues" he provides in CT to the personalities of his pilgrims, particularly those clues of physical appearances.

Chaucer's additions to his sources in PhyT emphasize the "domestic contours" of the story. PhyT is a critique of the "social efficacy of the patriarchal family." Virginius first fails to protect his daughter and then murders her; he is "no better a…

Stresses that genre markers influence audience reception. Surveys the "mass of single works called "fabliaux proprement dits" to determine "invariant elements," which are genre markers in four categories: "communicative situation, province of…

Places RvT in the context of oral literature: fluidity, a plot pattern more important than characters, fulfillment more important than suspense. RvT emphasizes the victory of young over old and shows no concern with moral values, except that "pride…

Examines Marian prayers and images in Dante, de Guilleville, Petrarch, and Chaucer, who use prayers to the Virgin at crucial moments in their works. A comparative study illuminates religious ideals and narrative strategies in CT (PrT, SNT), TC, and…

By applying it to BD, PF, HF, TC, and CT (MilT, WBP, and GP Monk), Erzgraber tests Karl-Heinz Stierle's thesis that the "object of comicality is anything that threatens a culture." Chaucer reflects the cultural complexity of his age.

With characters slightly less than human, Chaucer's fabliaux, a sort of "guerrilla warfare on established values," deviate from the classical definition of comedy ridiculing vice and folly to correct deviancy. Fabliaux characters are opposed to the…

Shows Chaucer's congruences with early humanist conceptions of tragedy (including Petrarch's and Boccaccio's) and sketches the consequences for a new interpretation of MkT.