Browse Items (16470 total)

Critical views of the Wife, though based on the same Chaucerian texts, vary widely--roughly between realistic approaches and those that ignore or deny realism.

Lines argues that the idealized chivalric homosocial bonding in Surrey's poem was influenced by KnT. Eulogizing the Duke of Richmond in this way critiques the debased version of political bonds in the court of Henry VIII.

Includes (pp. 256-76) KnT in a modern prose version from Eleanor Farjeon's "Tales of Chaucer" (1930), here "slightly cut" and titled "Palamon and Arcite." Includes a b&w illus. of Emelye walking below the prison tower.

Examines the style and techniques of Chaucer's quasi-optical, quasi-cinematic ("quasi-optische," "quasi-filmescher") scene changes in CT, with particular attention to those in MerT. Focuses on relations between external and internal drama in such…

Item not seen; WorldCat cites this essay in its entry for the edited volume, without page numbers. In Finnish.

Includes a chapter, "Sharing Laughter" (pp. 205-32), that identifies examples from late medieval art and literature where laughter constitutes "moral censorship" of same-sex desire or actions, then focuses on the Pardoner; his relation with the…

Adaptation of WBT in archaized modern English prose as a script for presentation as a radio drama, with seven characters (King, Queen, The Young Knight, Old Woman, 1st Woman, 2nd Woman, and Wife of Bath as voice-over narrator). Duration:…

Chaucer most often depicts technology as an aid to trickery and fraud. Chaucer's mechanical wonders--such as those in FrT, SqT, and CYT--are potentially dangerous to persons lacking inside knowledge. Even simple machines can deceive. Though Chaucer…

No more than a fraction of Astr is translated; the largest part is Chaucer's own "practical prose." In the "translated" sections Chaucer expanded his source by a factor of eight; thus his version is hardly a "translation."

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.

Influenced by literature, the meaning of marriage changed radically in late-medieval England. Replacing the celebration of celibacy as reflecting union with Christ, earthly marriage validated itself in bourgeois ideology, as shown by FranT, Gower,…

Depictions of marriage in a range of late Middle English texts engage concerns with lay and ecclesiastical authority and promote interests of "the lay middle strata." The book opens with a reading of how FranT expresses in its "discourse of…

Demonstrates that in Lydgate's "Disguising" the wives' use of Chaucerian "performative and legalistic speech acts" is set in evocative conflict with the "theatricality of monarchical justice," arguing that Lydgate learned from Chaucer's WBPT how…

Explores how and to what extent the WBP "presents both the challenges to women's agency posed by medieval marriage and, conversely, the ways existing practices of medieval marriage could be manipulated to empower women." Designed for pedagogical use,…

Argues that WBT presents a different vision of law, informed by female agency, where the focus is on reeducation. The rapist-knight is rewarded rather than punished, but this failure of justice functions as a call to activism, as the law so depicted…

Identifies satiric elements in the description of the Guildsmen in GP--stylistic jibes and social critique, including the association of them with the Cook, who is later identifiable as the historic Roger de Ware, of ill repute.

Study guide to WBPT, designed for university students. Includes summaries, commentaries, and discussion of contexts, themes, characterization, style, language, and critical approaches, with advice on how score well on exams, a model exam answer, and…

Study guide to MilT, designed for university students. Includes summaries, commentaries, and discussion of contexts, themes, characterization, style, language, and critical approaches, with advice on how score well on exams, a model exam answer, and…

A frame-tale narrative modeled on and adapted from CT, with tales told by a range of individuals traveling by bus in 1969 to attend the "Woodstock Music and Art Fair." The introduction acknowledges Chaucer's inspiration in form, styles, and…

Contends that the beating in RvT alludes to an incident in the life of St. Oswald the Bishop, arguing that the allusion enhances the Reeve's attack on the Miller and creates a sense of irony, as the Reeve suffers in comparison with his priestly…

Includes the Middle English text of GP 1-42, with Lithgow's reading of the passage and his commentary on how it "grabs you" and makes you want to hear more.

Comments on medieval knighthood and the appropriateness of KnT to the Knight.

Protagonist and narrative are usually aligned in medieval literature, but the protagonist is alienated from the narrative when his or her ethos conflicts with generic context, as in Chaucer's TC and CYT and in works of Malory and Hoccleve, among…

Little reevaluates the Christian iconography in SNT in light of the Wycliffite debate over the use of images and their potential to become idolatry. Despite the importance of visual images, SNT shows a shift toward words and texts.

Centers on medieval self-definition rather than subjectivity and studies examples of Wycliffite lay instruction. The Lollards rejected auricular confession and emphasized personal contrition for sin. Lollard pastoral texts disrupted traditional…