Browse Items (16459 total)

Collection of essays on medieval romance that contains recurrent references to FranT, KnT, MLT, MilT, PhyT, and Th. For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search for Romance Reading on the Book under Alternative Title.

Considers the backgrounds and narrative structures of Chaucer's comic tales. Chaucer's fabliaux are less serious than are their sources and analogues, although some of the resemblances are disturbing. In Japanese.

Thirty-two essays by various authors who define and describe the professions, vocations, and avocations of Chaucer's pilgrims. Individual essays pertain to each of the pilgrims mentioned in GP--including the five guildsmen, the Host (innkeeper), and…

In CT, generally, and in MLT, FrT, PhyT, PardT, and PrT, specifically, devils act as agents of God to tempt evildoers. Although they fail, evildoers in CT are armed with the God-given ability to avoid such temptation through their reason,…

CT develops "horror and abjection" through struggles for mastery of many kinds, leaving its characters suspended between the Tabard and Canterbury amid images of mutilation and death. Chaucer critics may also be seen as pilgrims struggling among…

Discusses references to the middle class in Arthurian literature and relates to SqT, Th, and ShT to the medieval "commercial revolution." Arcite, in KnT, is a type of Horatio Alger, beginning as a page, gaining status, and marrying into nobility.

Surveys the polarities in critical assessments of CT, focusing on four oppositions: realism vs. stereotypicality, monologic vs. dialogic approaches, allegorical vs. humanist (ironic) approaches, and misogyny vs. feminism. Assesses the opposed…

Though Chaucer has been scorned for creating humor, the bulk of CT is serious, and seriousness and humor should no longer be perceived as mutually antagonistic. Chaucer's humor develops as a structuring "glue" arising through literary methods that…

Argues that Don Juan Manuel's "El Conde Lucanor" and Chaucer's CT have many parallels and that CT may have been influenced by Manuel's work. Explores the presence of both authors in Spain and compares their didactic methods and their many…

Demonstrates the influence of Seneca's moral philosophy on CT by assessing Chaucer's quotations of Seneca. Translates Latin and Middle English quotations into both Spanish and modern English.

"The Decameron" should be seen as a source of CT despite the lack of verbal parallels. Each work forms "an itinerary for the reader, if a highly indirect one, towards the good." "The Decameron" leads to Griselda, while CT leads to the Parson's…

Advocates imitative role-playing as a way to teach Chaucer. Students select pictures from newspapers and magazines, create characters from the pictures, and develop stories for the characters to tell. Stories are told during an imaginary journey,…

The structure of CT reflects aspects of Chaucer's world, in particular the structure of gothic cathedrals.

Considers Chaucer's narrative persona in CT in two manifestations: as writer and as pilgrim. Writers were necessarily reciters in Chaucer's day, with opportunities in government, in religion, and as itinerant performers. Pilgrims encountered…

Traces the development of English "central government control over local institutions," discussing the emergence of local groups and mentioning the GP Guildsmen.

With the Knight and the Squire, Chaucer's Yeoman comprises the "basic English fighting unit--a unit sometimes referred to as a 'lance.'" Details of the Yeoman's GP sketch capitalize on the various connotations of "yeoman," and depict the Yeoman as a…

The inclusion of the Weaver among the Guildsmen of GP "is an anomaly" insofar as the typical weaver of the age was "an exploited, usually propertyless laborer." Morgan surveys the history of weavers and their role in the English wool trade.

The GP sketch of the Plowman reflects the ambiguities of late-medieval attitudes toward labor. It depicts ideals of working-class spirituality and the social realities of agriculture.

Characterizes the Host by examining the social history of his profession as an innkeeper and its possible associations with prostitution. In his interactions with other pilgrims,the Host reveals a "desire to be entertained with merry stories" and an…

Chaucer's depiction of time in the opening of GP is modeled on either Guido delle Colonne's "Historia Destructionis Troiae" or Boccaccio's "Ameto," although Chaucer mistakenly inverted the mention of April and the cliche about March.

Relates the GP portraits to the philosophy of realism expressed by Scotus and Peirce. Chaucer's realism is especially like Peirce's in its emphasis on behavior, historical coordinates, and the use of lively action or dynamic process to define the…

Surveys the process and business of dyeing in the Middle Ages, commenting on the economic status of the dyers' guild and individual dyers in late-medieval England. Briefly assesses Chaucer's depiction of the Dyer as one of the Guildsmen in GP.

As background to the GP carpenter--one of the Guildsmen--this essay surveys the prospects and activities of medieval carpenters: their organization into guilds and the guild hierarchy, their relations with masons and iron mongers, their techniques…

In KnT, Chaucer presents three conceptions of knighthood, each arising from individual desires that displace social responsibility. Arcite and Palamon's rivalry is based in mimetic desire for ontological being. Theseus arbitrates their rivalry by…

Summarizes the medieval history of knighthood and its status in late-fourteenth-century England, exploring implications of details in the GP sketch of the Knight, especially those that relate to the "Crusading spirit" in its positive and negative…