Lee, Sung-Il.
Medieval English Studies 05 (1997): 201-16.
Henryson's emulation of Chaucer is evident in his adoption of the stanza form of TC for his "Testament," yet he expresses his "rivalry" with his prececessor by offering a different conclusion.
Matthews, David.
Studies in Medievalism 09 (1997): 5-25.
Uses the Hoccleve portrait of Chaucer as a focal point for examining the nineteenth-century image of Chaucer. Viewed at first as the one "modern" author of his time, Chaucer becomes, through the work of the Chaucer Society and the edition of Skeat,…
Pearsall, Derek.
Victoria: University of Victoria, 1997.
A documentary biography of Lydgate that prints and places in context his life-records and includes a bibliography of his major works, modern editions, and essential secondary studies. The biography includes recurrent mention of where and how…
Ward, Antonia.
Studies in Medievalism 09 (1997): 44-57.
Argues that the impulse behind Furnivall's Chaucer scholarship was homosocial, a desire to become as close to Chaucer as possible and to share his love of the poet with other men as a way of bringing them closer together. This homosocial element has…
Akehurst, F. R. P.,and Stephanie Cain Van D'Elden, eds.
Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Nine essays by various authors on representation of and attitudes toward strangers in medieval literature and society. Topics include merchants as strangers, Jews in France, Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Wolfram, Renaut de Montaubon," the German poet…
Ellis, Steve.
Studies In Medievalism 09 (1997): 26-43.
Shows that the steady growth in understanding of the historical context of Chaucer's poetry has coexisted with a tendency, on the part of scholars as well as popularizers, to view Chaucer as the jovial poet of "merrie England."
Hoenen, Maarten J. F. M.,and Lodi Nauta,eds.
Leiden, New York, and Koln: Brill, 1997.
Twelve essays by various authors on the reception of Boethius's Consolatione Philosophiae--its medieval glosses, commentaries, and translations. Four essays pertain to the Middle Dutch tradition. Passim references to Chaucer's Bo. For an essay that…
Kim, Myoung-ok.
Medieval English Studies 05 (1997): 107-44
Examining passages from BD, TC, and CT, Kim contrasts Chaucer's uses of multiple narrative voices with the ways other medieval writers write themselves and their readers into their texts.
Lehr, John.
Medieval English Studies 05 (1997): 243-82.
Compares the multilingual conditions of late-medieval England with modern conditions in Korea, Kenya, and Quebec. Then argues that Hoccleve's poetic career resulted from Lancastrian encouragement of a national English language imitating Chaucer's…
Reed, Teresa P.
Dissertation Abstracts International 57 (1997): 3930A.
Representations of Mary in medieval literature are paradoxical, often underscored by her opposition to Eve. MLT and the hagiography Seinte Marherete seek to present a unified view of Mary but ultimately fail; WBPT and Pearl are more sensitive to the…
Examines how the confessional mandate of the Fourth Lateran Council provoked the rise of vernacular penitential manuals, and their impact on literary characters from Chaucer, Machaut, and the Libro de buen amor.
Winstead, Karen A.
Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 1997.
Divides Middle English saints' lives about virgin martyrs (ca. 1200-1450) into three subgroups and examines how each reflects the cultural conditions of its reception.
Brewer, Derek.
George Hughes, ed. Corresponding Powers: Studies in Honour of Professor Hisaaki Yamanouchi (Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 103-12.
Reads KnT as an expression of Chaucer's own outlooks, i.e., his sympathetic views of chivalry and ritual.
Kang, Ji-Soo.
Medieval English Studies 05 (1997): 145-70.
Explores medieval theories of narrative closure in Matthew of Vendome, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Brunetto Latini, and John of Garland to argue that if "inconclusiveness" is a thematic goal, the end of a work is the "natural place to accent it." As an…
Parallels between Mary and Constance exist not only in details but also in narrative strategy, since both women are subject to the complexities and contradictions of the exemplary mode. In addition, Constance is presented through metaphors of death,…
In WBT, the first mention of fairies--the Wife's lament for their disappearance--is linked to and introduces the other fairy scenes. The knight's experience demonstrates that even in her first mention of fairies the Wife associates them with…
Paris, Bernard J.
Chapter 5 in Imagined Human Beings: A Psychological Approach to Character and Conflict in Literature (New York and London: New York University Press, 1997), pp. 82-92.
Psychoanalyzes Walter of ClT as one who tests Griselda's submissiveness to assure his own freedom and to vindicate his choice of her as a wife. Griselda seeks personal glory in her subservience. They are "two sick people in a pathological…
Pearsall, Derek.
F. R. P. Akehurst and Stephanie Cain Van D'Elden, eds. The Stranger in Medieval Society (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), pp. 46-62.
Explores the nuances of "strange" and "stranger" in Middle English, arguing that noncitizens, immigrants from the provinces, and merchants were considered strangers in London. Comments on the 1381 massacre of Flemings and Chaucer's allusion to it…
Examines biographical, textual, and comparative approaches to Th to show how dependent they are on modern notions of author and text. Argues that medieval textuality and authorship pose methodological problems for understanding Th as parody, a genre…
Saunders, Corinne J.
Susan Deacy and Karen F. Pierce, eds. Rape in Antiquity (London: Duckworth, in association with The Classical Press of Wales, 1997), pp. 243-66
Assesses medieval literary representations of rape in light of law, medicine, and theology. Reads Chaucer's account of Lucretia in LGW as a challenge to Augustine's admonitions against suicide, and the account of Philomela as proto-feminist. Compares…
Thomson, Peter.
European Medieval Drama 1: 35-44, 1997.
Reads Chauntecleer's descent from the perch in NPT as evidence that medieval stage entrances were marked by "masculine assertiveness," useful for clarifying differences among characters in a limited troupe. Compares the narrative scene with dramatic…
