Decicco, Mark.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 2489A.
Completed in 1513, Douglas's was the first and only full translation of Virgil's "Aeneid" into an English vernacular until Dryden's. The status of Middle English as a literary vehicle had been established by Chaucer. Douglas did the same for Middle…
Brewer, Melody Light.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 4136A.
The clash of realist Thomistic Christianity (Dante) and nominalism (Ockham) provides the basis of Chaucer's exuberant satire on philosophy, linguistics, classical tradition, the state of the Church, and other late-fourteenth-century issues. HF…
Henderson, Arnold Clayton.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 2489A.
Fables present a worldlier view than do Christian bestiaries, and neither genre presented a worldview full enough for Chaucer or other writers. Fable became more Christian, developing witty moralization, sharply drawn personae, and more vivid style…
Waters, Claire McMartin.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 4423A.
Focuses on the association of preaching and the preacher's body in medieval tradition, exploring the association through traditional identification of women and the body. Women preachers of hagiographic tradition and various exemplary women…
Wilsbacher, Gregory James.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 3448A.
Examines ethical questions raised by medieval literature for modern readers in the light of modern philosophical studies (Jean-FranƯois Lyotard, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Nancy), as shown in LGW (literature and history), Piers Plowman…
Boehme, Timothy Howard.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60 (1999): 121A.
Analysis of WBPT, FrT, SumT, ClT, FranT and Ret indicates that Chaucer was "a realist with regard to religion and a nominalist with regard to language and epistemological issues."
Haas, Kurtis Boyd.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 2970A.
Unlike other authors of chivalric romance of his time, Chaucer manipulates medieval theories of rhetoric to reveal how the relations of authority and discourse define both the pilgrim narrators and the characters in their tales. Treats WBPT, KnT,…
Pappano, Margaret Ann.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 2490A.
Explores the sociocultural influence of sacerdotal celibacy on literature. Capable of performing the Mass, the "special body" of the priest became a literary icon, aligned with the Latin language in opposition to Lollardy. Lay writing emerged against…
Barefield, Laura D.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 2489A.
At the crux of chronicle and romance, Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Historia" provides much of the basis for later literature. The work emphasizes women not only as child bearers but also as speakers who could uphold or deny legitimacy. Barefield discusses…
Nolan, Maura Bridget.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60 (1999): 123A.
The poetry of the age demonstrates the construction and manipulation of history, while popular culture reflects the changing relations of ruler and laws. Thus "Wynnere and Wasture" treats the 1352 Statute of Treasons. Chaucer's MLT,a poetic revision…
Heffley, Sylvia Patricia.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 3446A.
Although Christian marriage was well defined by theologians in the twelfth through the thirteenth centuries, the proper role of sexuality remained debatable, as shown in the west portal of Senlis Cathedral, in Jean de Meun's introduction of the…
Lipton, Emma.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60 (1999): 123A.
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,…
Kaplan, Philip Benjamin.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 3465A.
Defines anti-Semitic art as any work that employs pejorative stereotypes about Jews without repudiating them. Focuses on Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" but also considers PrT and Marlowe's "The Jew of Malta."
Little, Katherine Clover.
Dissertation Abstracts International 59 (1999): 5136A.
Examines Wycliffite sermons and the opposing views of William Thorpe and Nicholas Love to compare Lollard and orthodox views of narrative and of the individual. Chaucer's awareness of the conflict, his refusal to take sides, and the futility of…
The ending of TC is unified with the rest of the poem. Its abrupt shift from pagan setting to Christian message is a structural imitation of the Boethian distinction between temporality and eternity.
Compares Chaucer's and Boccaccio's treatments of Troilus's looking at Criseyde in the temple. Governed by the laws of medieval optics, Troilus's gaze imprints Criseyde's image in his heart. In the image of the mirror, Chaucer portrays Troilus's…
Troilus's "double sorrow" is actually a triple sorrow caused by Criseyde's betrayal; the inability of Pandarus, his intercessor, to bring Criseyde back; and the failure of the goddess Venus to reunite him with Criseyde.
Although Chaucer does not divert from the pattern of Troilus's tragic fall from the top of the wheel of fortune, he employs ironic twists and ambiguities that diffuse the rigidity of the tale. The transitions in TC subvert attention from rigid…
Watanabe, Seiji.
Hisayuki Sasamoto et al., eds. Hearts to the English-American Language and Literature: Essays Presented to Emeritus Professor Sutezo Hirose in Honour of His 88th Birthday (Osaka: Osaka Kyoiku Tosho, 1999), pp. 525-43 (in Japanese).
Epstein, Robert.
Studies in Philology 96: 1-21, 1999.
Compares Scog and Henry Scogan's "Moral Ballade," arguing that the two works reflect aspects of Ricardian and Lancastrian culture, respectively--Chaucer serves in a "benignly neglectful court culture," and Scogan heralds an "age of politicized…
Bradbury, Nancy Mason.
Rosalind Field, ed. Tradition and Transformation in Medieval Romance (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1999), pp. 115-24.
Argues that Chaucer's reception of native romance in TC is more positive and artistically significant than has been previously recognized. After examining the elements of metrical romance in Th and arguing that it parodies one extreme of Chaucer's…
Cannon Christopher.
Barbara A. Hanawalt and David Wallace, eds. Medieval Crime and Social Control (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), pp. 156-85.
Legal records reflect the struggles of medieval women to gain legal (and verbal) representation. A similar struggle is evident in the court case of Lady Meed of Piers Plowman, as well as in Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Love, The Book of Margery…
DeZur, Kathryn Michelle.
Dissertation Abstracts International 60: 414A, 1999.
Analyzes the relationships of "interpretation, authority, and female sexuality" in works by Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Sidney. TC and WBPT contrast a lady seduced by her reading with a woman empowered by hers.
