Dutton, Marsha L.
Benjamin Thompson, ed. Monasteries and Society in Medieval Britain: Proceedings of the 1994 Harlaxton Symposium. Harlaxton Medieval Studies, no. 6 (Stamford: Watkins, 1999), pp. 296-311.
Dutton reads the Prioress and the Second Nun as paired opposites: one childish, the other adult. In PrPT, the Creator is subordinated to his creatures, who seem "unaware of the effects of the Incarnation." SNPT reasserts the proper order, in which…
Leicester, H. Marshall,Jr.
Berkeley : University of California Press, 1990.
Treating "impersonated artistry" and "unimpersonated artistry" in light of current theory in the human sciences, Leicester addresses the "dramatic principle" in CT, assuming the position that the "tales are radically voiced." Each is "an expression…
Patterson, Lee, ed.
Berkeley : University of California Press, 1990.
A collection of seven articles on late-medieval culture, literature, and the problems of historical interpretation. Treats Chaucer, Langland, and others.
Muscatine, Charles.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957.
Describes aspects of medieval French poetry that influenced Chaucer's style, high and low, tracing the idealizing, nonrepresentational conventions of courtly romances from the early twelfth century to their epitome in Guillaume's de Lorris's portion…
Noonan, John T.,Jr.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987.
Studies bribery in a "variety of cultures from ancient Egypt to modern America," with short treatments of Chaucer (pp. 287-90, powerfully articulating "the anti-bribery ethic" in FrT, SumT, PardT, ClT, ParsT); Langland (pp. 275-79); and Dante (pp.…
Johanson, Paula.
Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2010.
Introductory commentary on British poetry from Anglo-Saxon poetry to the works of John Keats, focusing on canonical works and writers. Chapter 2 (pp. 21-30) summarizes Chaucer's life and describes his iambic meter, explicating Truth (original and…
Crane, Susan.
Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1986.
Argues that romances produced in England, whether in Anglo-Norman or Middle English, share a consistent series of concerns that distinguishes them from French romances.
Jordan, Robert M.
Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1987.
Advising Chaucerians to abandon literary interpretation in favor of poetics, Jordan catalogues the genres, modes, and discursive forms of a particular Chaucerian text, first pointing out their incompatibility and then noting the failure of univocal…
Koff, Leonard Michael.
Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1988.
Koff argues that "Chaucerian irony does not lead to Chaucer's own meaning. Instead, Chaucer's deflecting self-characterizations and the characterization of the storyteller who 'cannot tell stories' enable Chaucer to relinquish omniscience, thereby…
Justice, Steven.
Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1994.
New-Historical exploration of the relations between late-medieval vernacular literacy and the insurgency of 1381 (Peasants' Revolt). Focuses on six brief texts concerning leaders of the revolt, treating their production, implications, and relations…
Ridley, Florence H.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.
Surveys critical approaches to PrT, distinguishing between "hard critics" of the Tale who read it as an indictment of the teller's anti-Semitism, and "historical" approaches that consider it in light of late-medieval attitudes and practices. Argues…
Alderson, William L., and Arnold C. Henderson.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970.
Assesses editions and translations of Chaucer's works between 1660 and 1750 (including Speght 3, Dryden, Urry, and Morrell) for the ways they reflect the principles and practices of Augustan scholarship, lexicography, aesthetic outlooks, social…
Steadman, John M.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
Studies the "flight episode," Troilus's laughter, and the location of the eighth sphere in TC "against the background of the apotheosis tradition [Lucan, Cicero, Dante, Boccaccio, and various commentaries] and the conventions of classical…
Howard, Donald R.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Although CT is unfinished, it is aesthetically complete. The GP is structured to reveal typifying groups. The tales are ordered into thematic clusters. The ParsT provides a satisfying closure. The structure of the poem is the interlace or…
Kendrick, Laura.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Using "paradigms" of human behavior drawn from psychology, psychoanalysis, and anthropology, Kendrick studies play in CT. Chaucer's tales involve either "pathetic fictions that foreground individual accommodation to exterior reality or public…
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Explores the relationship between gender and subjectivity in the works of Chaucer, assessing from a feminist critical perspective the traditional "adulation" of the poet. Hansen examines the "feminization" of Chaucer's characters and narrators and…
Delany, Sheila.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Analyzes LGW as an under-appreciated work, using an ecletic combination of approaches derived from semiotic, historicist, and feminist theories. LGWP and the separate legends are coherent but not organic; they combine in their recurrent…
Hallam, Elizabeth, and Andrew Prescott, eds.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Photographic reproductions of records from British cultural history, arranged chronologically from the departure of the Romans to late-modern multi-culturalism. Reproduces in color (p. 31) three images that pertain to Chaucer: a page from the…
Neuse, Richard.
Berkeley. Los Angeles, and Oxford: University of California Press, 1991.
CT responds to Dante's Commedia in a "conscious attempt " to continue its "poetic tradition" of pilgrimage narrative. Chaucer's pilgrims "comment or focus on one or more aspects of the Dantean pilgrimage," and both works define the human image and…
Minkova, Donka, and Robert Stockwell, eds.
Berlin : Mouton de Gruyter, 2002.
Nineteen essays by various authors, divided into three sections--Millennial Perspectives; Phonology and Metrics; and Morphosyntax/Semantics-and an envoy. Includes author and subject indexes. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for…
