Browse Items (16469 total)

Surveys criticism that, in various ways, treats Chaucer as a love poet, commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of individual approaches.

Darwinian, Freudian, and Marxist approaches to CT have "obscure(d) the historical and intellectual context of the religious tales" (Mel, ParsT, ClT, MLT, PrT, SNT), making them the "most marginalized" of Chaucer's works. Articles in the…

Introduces a "Corpus of the Canon of Western Literature" (CCWL) based on Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon" and utilizes corpus stylistics to "operationalize" the argued coherence of the western canon. Using CT as an example, illustrates how tagging…

Describes a pedagogy for teaching ClT in comparison to the Griselda story in Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies--as part of a course that treats "Chaucer in context" as a means to encourage students to engage actively in their…

Chaucer is aware of poetic or aureate diction but seldom uses it. He is "essentially a poet of 'occupatio'." Language change rapidly made Chaucer's meter difficult to imitate, even for Lydgate. Like other writers, Chaucer introduces new Latinate…

Neo-Platonism is the root of medieval depictions of wilderness as a metaphoric landscape of psychological transition and spiritual conversion.

Establishes the linked "material, domestic, and spiritual economies" apparent in the Luttrell Psalter as a creative analogue of CT since both texts emphasize "meta-artistic play," hybridity, and multiple frames of reference. Reading images in the…

Fulk extols two collaborative editions of Chaucer for their excellent textual editing: The Variorum Chaucer by Ruggiers and Ransom, and Benson's Riverside Chaucer; additionally, praises Peter Robinson's digital Canterbury Tales Project. Warns…

Argues that 'Augustine's theology allows us to see providence in romance as a doubled perspective that recognizes the existential smallness of individuals and their collective participatory power in a plural world," addressing KnT, ClT, and…

Defines and anatomizes "intertextuality," and proceeds to examine aspects of Thomas More's "Utopia" in this light. Uses examples from Chaucer to help clarify the varieties of the concept: from NPT, Chauntecleer's Latin misquotation as an example of…

Ten essays by various authors, a forward and an introduction, a bibliography of Rigg's publications, and a subject index. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer; search for Interstices under Alternative Title..

Considers the speaking birds in ManT and PF for the ways they suggest the "destabilization of human identity," also considering the topic in the late-fourteenth-century tale, "The Woman and the Three Parrots."

Interprets the Pardoner as an intersex person, taking his sexuality literally rather than figuratively, a matter of variation rather than lack. Clarifies these concepts in the history of science and the history of Chaucer criticism, and compares the…

Collection of case studies exploring ways in which medieval gender intersected with other categories of difference, including religion and ethnicity. For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search for Juliette Dor, "Chaucer's Viragos: A Postcolonial…

Contrasts Chaucer's Troilus and the title character of "Sir Tristrem," with comments on brutality and violence in "Athelston," exploring the "nobility" or lack of nobility of masculine protagonists in courtly romance. Devotion and affection dominate…

Argues that the "interpretive reading" underlying T. H. White's uses of William Twiti's "The Art of Hunting" as a source in "The Once and Future King" is similar to medieval rhetorical techniques of amplification. Exemplifies similar kinds of…

An inscription at the end of ParsT in a copy of Thynne's edition at Beinecke Library, Osborn Collection, Yale University, reveals something of the general reception of the Wife of Bath.

Discusses the blanks left for illustration in Corpus Christi College MS 61, suggesting a possible strategy for prospective illustrations, including initials: the illustration would have emphasized choice as an aspect of narrative structure. The…

Chaucer's translation of "Roman de la Rose" and his indirect references to Oiseuse (Idleness) in his own poetry illuminate her significance, normally explained by critics as having exegetical or courtly meaning. LGWP, KNT, SNT, and ParsT reinforce…

Because Alisoun in MilT and May in MerT are exempted from retribution for their active roles in adultery and deception, readers are invited to ask how women are or are not fully part of the systems by which we conceptualize accountability for…

Unlike the dream interpretations in the works of Freud and Milton, dreams in Chaucer's poems reveal the strategies of power and gender that shape the interpretation of dreams. Discusses WBP, NPT, and TC.

In the drawing of the Canterbury Pilgrims, Blake's antithetical method, employing ironic juxtaposition and counterpoint, invites the viewer to participate in the exercise of the Divine Vision of forgiveness by distinguishing "States from Individuals…

Explores how vernacular translators of Jacobus de Voragine's "Legenda Aurea" lend theological authority to their works by appropriating or emulating the onomastic etymologies in Jacobus's work. Includes discussion of Chaucer's close following of…

Ten essays on medieval theories of interpretation and modern approaches to medieval texts. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Interpretation: Medieval and Modern under Alternative Title.

Chaucer had a rare sense of genre for a medieval writer. Not only was he "one of a small number of generic innovators," but he also reinterpreted and practiced genres and had a "following of practitioners." Kelly surveys Chaucer's use of genre…