Browse Items (16456 total)

Examines the important role of rhetorical figures--particularly repetition and contrast--in the meaning, the structure, and the description of characters in NPT, BD, and TC.

Examines the Host's malapropistic banter in the introduction to PardT and language in PardT and GP that helps delineate the character of the vicious Pardoner. Kanno discusses incongruity between word and deed, appearance and reality.

Briefly surveys Chaucer's use of the medieval "art poetical," which he learned from his predecessors and realized in his own poems.

In CYT, Chaucer's comic use of technical terms related to alchemy or to alchemists (e.g., "craft," "disciplyne," "emprise," "experience," "labour," "loore," "maistrie," "multiplicatioun," "philosophie," "science," "travaille," "wirkyng,"…

Discusses some key words in Chaucer.

The word "syde" may be used as a pun in MerT.

Discusses the difference of treatment between PhyT and Gower's "Tale of Virginia."

Discusses how "craft" is lexically related to the development of the story.

The narrator tells his tale from the social and political point of view.

Conventional and hackneyed words in Chaucer assume delicate shades of meaning depending on context.

The "cherles terms" in MilT--"craft," "hende," "deerne," "sleigh," "privee"--are connotative; those in RvT--"theef," "sly"--are denotative.

At first lacking in "gentillesse," Aurelius knows how to insist u0pon his rights, but in the latter half of FranT, he is transformed into a gentle squire.

Through the images of purse, pardon, and false relics Chaucer constructs the spiritually degraded portrait of reality of a "gilty and ful vicious" Pardoner.

The narrator of this work, pretending ignorance, is conscious of his position as a poet, and a humorous but skeptical attitude towards utterance. Like a nominalist, he examines everyday speech, which is only "eyr ybroken," from the point of view of…

The simile applied to the Friar--"His nekke 'whit' was 'as the flour-de-lys'"--functions externally and internally. The outward sign of his neck is symbolic of his inner degraded state of mind, which shows physiognomically a mark of licentiousness…

Explores Chaucer's subtle manipulation of the language and imagery of hunting in FrT.

Chaucer frequently uses familiar words or phrases that at first seem insignificant or trivial; examined closely, however, they reflect unexpected humor. Chaucer excels at molding new science out of old books.

Friar John is guilty of the sin of gluttony, which he discusses. Diction relating to foodstuffs recurs throughout SumT, as does "in-and-out" imagery, culminating in scatological diction that reflects John's degraded state of mind.

As the Manciple uses his tale to warn the Cook not to accuse him, so Chaucer uses ManT to warn his audience to be careful of the stories they tell.

Discusses Chaucer's epithetic adjectives, stock phrases, and asseverations. Also considers his transformations of traditional similes and metaphors into fresh ones for poetic effects.

Whereas Boccaccio uses the straightforward word "tradimento" of Criseyde, Chaucer uses the roundabout phrase "hire hertes variaunce." In TC, "in gret penaunce" means both that "Criseyde was in great misery" and "Criseyde was in hell for her sins."

Collects previously printed essays, all here translated into English. The essays explore various relationships between diction and characterization as the key to Chaucer's literary craft. Concludes that Chaucer composed poetry as if he were…

Words and phrases discussed include "lust," "blynde," "a fewe wordes white," "glosynge," "ambages," "amphibologie," "double," "sophyme," "swete wordes," "plesante wordes," and "peinten."

Kanno examines instances of "mesure" and its synonyms in Chaucer's works, comparing those meanings with the virtue of moderation in Confucianism. The meanings range from "calculation" to "moderation." Generally, Chaucer's distinction between good and…

Contains twenty-five essays, five of which are written in English; the rest, including the preface and epilogue, are in Japanese. The first group of essays centers on Chaucer and his works. The second series of essays ranges from the Old English…