Browse Items (16456 total)

Argues that FrT and SumT "explore the question of true meaning in far-reaching ways." Concerned with "externals" only, the Friar's summoner ignores intention, while the Friar himself (a "false glossator" though described as worthy) "cannot properly…

Shows that confusion of literal and metaphoric understanding characterizes the Pardoner, the rioters of PardT, and the pilgrim audience (including the Host), who fail to "separate the immorality" of the Pardoner from the morality of his exemplum. The…

Reading the Wife of Bath's romance through her fabliau spirit reveals Chaucer's distaste for the Arthurian romance tradition (elsewhere seen in SqT, NPT) and (as seen in SqT, Th, and FranT) his ironic attitude toward male narrative authority, his…

Refers to Jane Barker's use in an early novel of Dryden's retelling of CT to provide context for her 1723 anti-novel, "A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies."

The Miller's narrative manner is adapted to the level of discourse expected of his social status. The disorganized syntax suggests a disorganized world view.

ClT embodies two levels of meaning, realistic and allegorical. These levels are well represented by the handling of the detail and imagery of Griselda's clothing.

Part six of a concordance to the GP in English. Introduction in Japanese.

Technical report of a set of acoustic experiments designed to gauge how "voicing duration" interacts with intonation to "give a poetic line much of its 'personality'." One experiment assesses eight readings of a passage from Alexander Pope's "Essay…

Examines the imagery of beautiful feet in Deschamps, Homer, the Old Irish tale of Derdriu, and Nordic myth. Using the motif of Jankin's attractive legs and feet, Taylor draws correspondences between the Wife of Bath's choice of the fifth husband and…

Considers the status and functions of mystery novels as a form of popular culture, employing distinctions posed by Pierre Bourdieu and exploring the use of allusion in the genre. Then investigates three mystery novels by Philippa Morgan that feature…

Uses postcolonial theory to argue that Agbabi and Breeze "interrogate the borders of British poetry and its 'modernity,'" by capitalizing on the "subversive elements already present" in WBPT, "from the subtle irony and the crafty use of the…

Discusses poetic metaphor, especially water imagery, with relation to conceptualization strategies (rapid versus delayed conceptualization) and how psychoanalysis might deal with the issues raised. Delayed conceptualization may provide more adequate…

Analyzes Edward Burne-Jones's illustrations of Rom in the Kelmscott Chaucer, arguing that they--and especially the final illustration of the poem--epitomize many of Burne-Jones's experiences with and attitudes toward books, book history, and the…

Because Chaucer's "children's tales" deal with "extreme violence which the children suffer as innocent victims," these narratives "tend toward despair." Yet, they provoke compassion and thereby suggest that compassion is the proper response to…

Discusses the connection between physicality and personality in St. Christopher's hagiography in the "South English Legendary" and, in expanding this connection, uses Chaucer's descriptions of the Miller and the Wife of Bath in GP as additional…

Includes discussion of WBT as "inspiration" for Reginald Heber's fragmentary verse-drama "The Masque of Gwendolen" (1830).

Uses the concepts and terminology of animation studies (e.g., "metamorphosis, condensation, anthropomorphism, choreography, fabrication, performance, sound, etc.") to gauge how and to what extent Jonathan Myerson in his "The Canterbury Tales" (1998)…

Discusses how origins of the meaning of TC are "decentred" on different levels. Argues that complicated use of external sources obfuscates the meaning of the text and that the subject-positions of Pandarus and the narrator create a "disruption" in…

Assesses Astr as a piece of technical writing, admiring Chaucer's use of a personal voice, everyday examples, devices of cohesion, and other indications of audience awareness.

By adducing several Middle English prose texts prior to Chaucer's Astr, Hagge refutes claims that Astr represents the first piece of technical writing in English.

Howard compares TC with Il Filostrato and CT with Decameron, focusing on how Chaucer adapts Boccaccio's uses of conventions to engage his audience. In Boccaccio, fiction enables the audience to escape from a contemptible world, whereas Chaucer--more…

Part 1: Semantic categories of vocabulary are useful in tracing Chaucer's macrostructure for CT. Using a computerized morpheme dictionary, Phelan traces medieval static macrostructures such as the seven deadly sins--a deductive approach to his…

Assesses the late-medieval and early modern popularity of the "story of Griselda" as an exploration of the "paradox of her non-noble status and her fitness to hold the moral high ground" and a reflection of anxiety "about marriages based on unequal…

Discusses seven "celestial assertions" in CT and the reference to April 18 to show that Chaucer "accurately describes the celestial conditions he observed" in southeast England. Astronomical evidence indicates that the CT pilgrimage ends on April 18,…

Chaucer's portrayal of Criseyde had to remain true to Boccaccio's account of her as a betrayer of Troilus, both underlining and undercutting her traditional character and conveying Boethius's idea of the nature of "human felicite."