Browse Items (16364 total)

Studies Chaucer's and Boccaccio's dream vision narratives and their references to dreaming in light of the history of the genre, focusing on the secularization of the genre, the rising importance of the poet as dreamer-viator, and aesthetic successes…

Theorizes the classical figure of Echo as a figure to "think with" in exploring "female vocality" and the topos of the "Philosopher and the Shrew" in WBPT and ClT (especially the Envoy), focusing on issues of deafness, gendered gossip, listening, and…

Dutch verse translation of CT, with introduction and notes.

Reviews translations of MilT from the eighteenth century forward, and offers a "translatological analysis" of four twentieth-and twenty-first-century versions, focusing on the sexual attitudes and activities in the plot and on the lexicons used by…

Identifies and discusses the implications of ninety-four proverbs in CT, most of which concern human relationships.

Kittredge's dialectical interpretation of the Marriage Group in CT is re-examined in terms of the different views presented by W. W. Lawrence, D. R. Howard, J. L. Hodge, and C. C. Olson. The conclusion is that there seems little to be revised in…

Focuses on the legend of Dido in LGW and compares its representation of Dido in Virgil's "Aeneid," Ovid's "Heroides," and HF. Argues that Dido in LGW desires Aeneas more actively than in other versions and that LGW presents her positively as…

Argues that Chaucer's sensory detail in his GP descriptions "rings a bell in our mind": we recognize these descriptions as modern for their emphasis on individuation rather than typicality. Attributes this technique to the rise of late-medieval…

Comments on amplification as a factor in the "powerful dramatic force" of TC and explores, book by book, the poem's themes of "sight and blindness, the words 'bind' and 'bridle'," references to "sea and ships as opposed to references to fishing," and…

Explores the extent to which the narrator and the dreamer, as separate psychologies, experience consolation through the progress of BD, assessing parallels between the Ceyx and Alcyone account and the dream of the knight' sorrow.

Reads PF as a "poem of love and marriage, touching upon the question of pleasure versus the duty of procreation, realistically set in the framework of a dream, and seasoned with wit." Emphasizes the poem's balanced sensibility and "refreshing…

In medieval tradition Esther is admirable and virtuous. She is invoked twice in MerT for the ironic comparison she offers to May, not as an undoer of men.

Standard modern studies of courtly love do not refer to a term used in French poetry, "blanche fever." A study of this sickness endured by the lovers in TC, "Confessio Amantis," "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale," and Caxton's "History of Jason"…

The lunar calendar and imagery of TC 4, though inspired by a similar device in "Filostrato," are far more elaborate than those in the source. The title characters are often directly correlated to these images, which deepens their development.

Deals with poetic structure and morality.

As Deiphebus observes (TC 2.1572), Troilus is indeed "sick" from love. Following Boethian medical imagery in "Consolatio," bk. 1, Chaucer interprets his passion as a moral disease: Troilus declines through affection, passion,and bestiality into…

The Sara mentioned in MerT may not refer to Sara the wife of Abraham, as is commonly thought, but to Sara of Rages from the book of Tobit--a symbol of ideal marriage and a strong thematic contrast to January and May. The Merchant's late reference…

Diomede in TC is a composite character of traits recalling Troilus the courtly lover and Pandarus the crafty pragmatist.

Argues that each of the major characters in FranT falls "short of an ideal standard," and that, although the Franklin "recognizes excellence," his Tale expresses an "amused recognition of human inability to live up to ideal standards."

Explores developments in the writing of fantasy literature, describing WBT along the way as an indication of an early stage in the diminishing status of romance, migrating from "elite to popular culture."

The tradition of anti-Semitism existed in "texts of persecution" such as Guillaume de Machaut's "The Judgment of the King of Navarre."

The authors survey a range of popular and artistic films, analyzing uses and presentations of the Middle Ages and assessing the interactions of the modern medium and the ancient material. The book includes commentary on Brian Helgeland's A Knight's…

Investigates the relation between "curiositas" (vice-laden seeking of experience or knowledge) and pilgrimage (symbolic devotional journey) as a tension between desire for the physical and spiritual worlds, examining the theological underpinnings of…

In GP the Parson and the Plowman are polysemic figures that emerge from the expression of conflicting, dialogic voices--not idealized role models. Free indirect speech in the Parson's description allows the audience to suspect that he is a whitened…

MLT is animated by ambivalence toward and ignorance of Islam. Chaucer's adaptation of Trevet's "Cronicles" shifts emphasis and perspective. Whereas the source never mentions Mohammed or the Koran and considers Muslims to be idol-worshippers, MLT…