Browse Items (16456 total)

Includes thirteen essays by Benson, all but one reprinted from earlier publications. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Contradictions: From "Beowulf" to Chaucer under Alternative Title.

Certain qualities of fourteenth-century London created a cultural atmosphere in which a new kind of poetry flourished, emphasizing urban community and its values.

Writing for an audience that knew animals and animal lore well (from physical interaction, folklore, and religious tradition), Chaucer appealed to, influenced, and manipulated this lore in HF, PF, PT, and TC.

Chaucer exposes the Ricardian practice of chaste marriage "for what perhaps it really was: sexual hypocrisy posing as virtuous Christian abstinence." The false romantic passion and comic fusion of the clerkly and courtly in male characters such as…

Burlin proposes a structuralist model for the medieval romance, adopting a Saussurean paradigm of intersecting axes: the "paradigmatic axis furnished with the test and courtly codes and the syntagmatic axis with the quest and the test." Includes…

Examines Chaucer's astrological and mythological allusions in light of medieval mythographic commentaries, arguing that such analysis discloses "embarrassing secrets."

Since secular narratives treat behavior, twelfth-century scholars regarded them as practical philosophy. Thus, internal debate and decision-making in both French and English romance are often based on theology and philosophy.

Argues that aural reading--the reading aloud of a written text--lasted much longer in English tradition than is normally assumed.

Isolates various religious formulae that are "more than mere line-fillers" in Middle English romances; they are significant in the vows and prayers.

Eleven essays by various authors including three on Chaucer. Each essay applies the critical theory of Mikhail Bakhtin to one or more works of medieval literature. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Bakhtin and Medieval Voices…

For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Proceedings of the VIth International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature under Alternative Title.

Defines the extent of the laity's knowlege of the Bible in late-fourteenth-century England.

Medieval anatomical, religious, and legal ideas about rape appear in medical texts, religious rules, saints' legends, romances, and WBT. These works reveal cultural attitudes toward rape and women in general.

Reviews the language used in schools and universities. French was the usual language of instruction until 1350, and perhaps later in universities.

Prints the inventory of books found in Purvey's residence upon his arrest in 1414, which were assessed at £12-18s-8d, and analyzes what the titles and their value imply.

Examines Chaucer's views on knowing and loving as they are connected and opposed through sight imagery.

Studies the influence of the book of Psalms on moral discourse in late-medieval England.

Surveys the legal, literary, and social status of women in medieval England, concentrating on the twelfth century and later.

For the one essay included that pertains to Chaucer, of this volume.

Examines how a twentieth-century atheist can read and respond to Chaucer, suggesting that a form of "dialogism" can mediate between the present and the past and can enable us to recognize that Chaucer is essentially more humanistic than, for example,…

Examination of tax records gives a picture of the distribution of clerical personnel in London around 1380.

Contrasts the life of Chaucer with that of D. H. Lawrence, focusing on their corresponding views about books, authors, and authorship.

Describes critical approaches to Chaucer's poetry (except CT and TC) and the crucial issues they have disclosed.

Ancient and medieval poems often received no titles from their authors. With commercial dissemination, editors provided titles to attract readers, as with poems by Chaucer, Wyatt, Shakespeare, and Dickinson. Authorial titles tend to orient readers…

Includes seventeen essays on Chaucer, "Piers Plowman," pastoral literature, scripture and homilies, and lyric poetry; a dedicatory introduction; and a list of Wenzel's publications. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Literature and…