Browse Items (16443 total)

Chaucer experiments with "different aesthetic and doctrinal possibilities" in his religious tales, which, "far from being dull and dutiful," demonstrate his literary virtuosity. Though MLT and ClT tell similar stories, MLT is a religious romance…

Rowland reviews Chaucer biography, noting the reluctance of most SAC contributors to explore Chaucer's life and their interest in his "mentality." Recent biography leaves a number of unresolved problems, difficulties, and mysteries in Chaucer's…

Chaucer needs no protection from students who question the more negative aspects of his life. Though Chaucer was "no saint," his life is devoid of anything particularly shameful. The Hainault connection simply gave Chaucer leisure and security…

Places Troilus's Hymn to Love, based on Boethius, in the context of Neoplatonic metaphysics, cosmology, and theories of love (pp. 78-79).

Contemplates the notion that "space travel helps us to see what we have on earth," musing upon the Apollo 11 moon landing and a number of literary representations of travel through space, ancient and modern, including Troilus's rise through the…

Describes the context and content of Hall's 1930 publication, "Flying with Chaucer," focusing on his quotations from CT and their role in his memoir.

Compares and contrasts the "treatment of Islam" in MLT and in "Decameron" 1.3 and 10.9, arguing that, unlike Boccaccio, Chaucer "vehemently condemns fraternizing with Islam" and presents Islam "as a dangerous and perfidious opposition to the…

Unpacks the meanings and implications of sample puns from Chaucer, Langland's "Piers Plowman," and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," suggesting that they evince a medieval respect for the transcendent potency of language. Chaucerian examples include…

Traces developments in the politeness system between Old English and Early Modern English, focusing on Chaucer's uses of the term "curteisie," his uses of the pronouns of address ("ye" and "thou") in MilT, and cases of "discernment" politeness in…

Offers a technical linguistic analysis of STR (speech and thought representation) in TC, theorizing a hierarchical "structure of subjectivities" to examine samples from the poem, attending to nuances latent in diction, situation, point of view,…

Argues that Chaucer's "polyphony and polyvocality" are both "modern" and "progressive"--justification for dismantling the period boundary between medieval and Early Modern literatures. Surveys mixed, condescending praise by Early Modern critics of…

Argues that the polyphonies of John Keats's poetry (as identified by Helen Vendler) are attributable to his engagements with Chaucer's works and Chaucerian apocrypha, reflecting a particular kind of "Englishness," underpinned by travel and encounters…

Compares T. S. Eliot's worldview in "The Waste Land" with Chaucer's view of the "world as a wilderness" in CT and Truth. Both poets see the need for renewal.

Reads PardT as evidence of the "darker undercurrents" of Chaucer's worries about his worldly success, especially as reflected in the night-time setting of the tale, its demonic imagery, and the Old Man's associations with avarice, death, and the…

Experimental retelling of the story of Dido and Aeneas that opens with references to HF and LGW, among other works.

Assesses female silence as resistance to masculine power in KnT, arguing that the strategy is limited. In KnT women succeed when they "express their need" for male protection, but not when they oppose or resist patriarchy. Includes an abstract in…

Explores the impact of medieval monastic culture on the evolution of sports, such as hockey, football and, in particular, tennis, including commentary on Chaucer's criticism of ecclesiastics engaged in sport. Argues that Chaucer's clerics reflect the…

Examines Chaucer's use of classical mythology from the perspective of how it is reinterpreted, sometimes following Neoplatonism (through St Augustine), and sometimes through other allegorical and moralizing reading.

Explores how and to what extent Chaucer's experiences in trade and in civil life affected his literary concerns and style, considering his "realism" as it is depicted in passages from GP, ShT, CYT, and MilT.

Introduction to WBT and its primary motifs, focusing on the raped maiden, the loathly lady, and Arthur's queen. Suggests that the Wife of Bath's "feminism is essentially phallocentricism [sic] in reverse."

Comments on anachronisms in the portrait of Chaucer included in William Godwin's Life of Chaucer (1803) and on the reception of the portrait and the biography, suggesting that the portrait is "more sincere" than other Chaucerian anachronisms and that…

Questions whether Richard Pynson's edition(s) of Chaucer's works (1526) is "one or three items," examining the bibliographical evidence and traditions available to answer the question, exploring the limitations and assumptions underlying this…

Castigates modern studies that describe the verse form of Francis Kynaston's Latin translation of TC as "pentameter" or as "rhymed accentual," explaining that it is, instead, in eleven-syllable lines with an accent on syllable ten. Then explores how…

Asserts that the conflation of editing and canon-formation in literary history "involve[s] an unavoidable circularity of reasoning, and an equally unavoidable series of assumptions we often claim to wish to avoid." Explores logical and methodological…

Outlines the "critical myth" that Chaucer, despite his assumed or constructed urbanity, lived in an age that was less sophisticated than the critic's own. Interrogates the history of this myth, exploring progressivist and devolutionary biases in…