Browse Items (16471 total)

Lists and describes the pedagogical value of selected resources in the study of Chaucer, focusing on CT but not exclusively, and arranged in several categories: Language, Editions, Adaptations and Translations, Backgrounds, Social History, Reference…

Examines anxieties about the status of the vernacular and cultural identity in late medieval England, particularly as evident in "exotic documents" found in Middle English narratives. Includes discussion of such documents in "Alexander and Didimus,"…

An introduction, seven chapters, and a conclusion study marriage in London in the second half of the fifteenth century. The "fundamental argument is that bonds of marriage and sex were . . . intimate, deeply personal ties and matters of public…

This edition of the northern version of the Middle English romance "Octovian" complements the editor's earlier edition of the southern version in the MET series (Heidelberg, 1979) and includes a full introduction, apparatus, notes, and glossary. The…

In Chaucer's poetry, guilt is represented as an "ethical ideal," whereas shame is often "portrayed as the psychological reality" that disrupts attempts to "realize the ideal." Throughout his poetry, but especially in CT, Chaucer articulates "the…

HF, TC, and CT more commonly represent shame (an exterior phenomenon) than guilt (an interior one); in dialogue with late medieval penitential theology, they suggest the narrative invisibility of guilt. HF and TC tackle the plausibility, in pagan…

Examines shame as a force in identity construction and a constraint on female agency, focusing on Criseyde in TC and Dido in HF, and briefly mentioning LGW. As an historical force, shame also determines narrative possibilities in these poems.

Reassesses gender violence in WBPT in terms of René Girard's theory of mimesis that complicates surface oppositions and suggests that we can read the Wife of Bath as parallel to the rapist-knight rather than to the loathly lady. The mirroring of…

ParsT is the best of the CT to choose for a survey class. It provides a link with ancient and modern literature, reflects the thinking of the major writers in medieval England, and interweaves the previous themes and images of CT.

Several studies have suggested Chaucer's indebtedness to works by Giraldus Cambrensis. Comparison of passages from the "Topographia Hibernie" and HF support the claim that Chaucer used this particular Latin source.

Revives the idea that Chaucer visited Ireland between 1361 and 1366, placing new emphasis on the date of the Statute of Kilkenny. Identifies sources for Chaucer's works in Irish and Norse literatures. Observes parallels for HF in the "Topographia…

McTurk argues that "Laxdaela Saga" is an analogue to WBPT, although the two derive independently from the Irish tale of the Loathly Lady.

Tradition relates the sin of simony to leprosy and sodomy, as evidenced by John Wyclif's "Tractatus De Simonia." The physical abnormalities of the Pardoner and Summoner in CT can thus be seen as symbolic of their simony.

Explores comic allusions in John Gay's pastorals "The Shepherd's Week" and "Trivia," along the way identifying "several allusions" to Chaucer's work in "The Shepherd's Week"--allusions to the Wife of Bath's red stockings, the use of "queynte" and the…

A postcolonial meditation on "what is Chaucer in the changing reality that is the context of Australia," which focuses on portions of four texts: a conversation between Meaghan Morris and Stephen Muecke, Ralph Elliott's 1968 comments on the…

Although Astr can be read as "unmarked," or neutral in relation to issues of cultural otherness, its source in Messahala's Arabic treatise and its enfigurement of the astrolabe as feminine indicate that we can and should treat it (with other…

Scholars such as Sheila Delany, Derek Pearsall, and Thomas Frederick Tout have used bureaucratic records of Chaucer - and records of Chaucer as bureaucrat - to construct subjective portraits of the poet. Mead explores the processes of "reading"…

Surveys critical responses to Astr, highlighting recent discussions that emphasize patterns of readership, pedagogical strategies, and the status of science in late fourteenth-century England.

Allusions to several Christian saints in HF show that, contrary to the arbitrariness of Fame's judgment, the "natural consequence of meritorious action" is "recognition both worldly and other-worldly."

Eight essays on women, literacy, and power in medieval Britain, including discussion of Latin, Anglo-Norman, Welsh,and English materials. Topics include romances, literature for recluses, the social conditions of literacy, female access to literacy,…

Chaucer's strategy in LGW and Christine de Pisan's in "Livre de la Cite des Dames" differ from Boccaccio's in "De claris mulieribus." Chaucer's parody of hagiography and Christine's efforts to encourage us to read as women promote a revisionist…

Examines the life, tomb, and library of Alice Chaucer--granddaughter of the poet--to suggest how we might reconstruct a women's literary culture of the fifteenth century. Alice's literary taste was influenced by her father, Thomas Chaucer; by the…

Argues that Chaucer was familiar with the realities of female monastic existence but chose to create his GP sketch of the Prioress from literary satire. The spirituality of PrT, however, is particularly apt for females, and many discussions of the…

Analyzes evidence of readership found in fifteenth-century copies of LGW, including its placement in anthologies, poems with which it is associated, and evidence of female names in LGW manuscripts. Infrequently excerpted, the poem was seldom mined…

Collection of essays honoring A. S. G. Edward's career, as well as his scholarly work on the "transitional period between manuscript and print culture." For two essays pertaining to Chaucer, search for Makers and Users of Medieval Books under…