Browse Items (16471 total)

Discusses how and why ambiguity is likely in TC, focusing on the relations between verbal elements such as contiguous structure.

Archibald surveys accounts of Oedipus and of Semiramis in classical and medieval texts, focusing on their concern or lack of concern with incest. Recurrent mention of Dante, Boccaccio, Christine de Pizan, and Chaucer-in particular TC, MLT, PF, and…

Exploring the relationship between gender identity and book production at the turn of the twentieth century, Benton assesses the format and typography of the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896) and Eric Gill's illustrations to The Canterbury Tales (1930). Also…

Brown discourages emendation ("dreary refinements") of Chaucer's meter, arguing that "broken-backed" or "Lydgatian" lines recorded in good manuscripts are likely to be Chaucer's own. Metrical variation within Chaucer's dominant patterns can have…

Caie comments on the presence of glosses in English literary manuscripts, arguing that glosses to WBP, MerT, and MLT can be read as attempts by Chaucer (or his scribes) to contain the subversive potential of texts that the glosses accompany.

Explores issues of persona, authorship, and reception in Th and Mel, focusing on the links between Tales, the Host's role, and the "evolution" of the pilgrim Chaucer.

Traces the history of the motif of infernal punishment in the devil's anus, suggesting that the earliest evidence of the motif is found in the "Seven Heavens Apocryphon" of Irish visionary tradition and that Chaucer's use of the motif in SumP derives…

Suggests that the mechanical aspects of the Trojan Horse in Lydgate's poem were influenced by the steed of brass in SqT.

Treats Chaucer's topoi of bird song, maternal goddess Nature, voice, mother tongue, and biblical gardens in PF. Argues that the movement from aggressive plot to lyric in the poem and its male protagonist's oblique approach to the maternal draw the…

Chaucer's depreciation of the father figure (biological, theological, literary predecessor) enables him to conceive of poetry separate from the needs for stable interpretation and didactic meaning. Throughout his corpus, his "polyvocal…

The "seeming eccentricities" in the verse of BD are an index to the poem's "complex intention." Close reading demonstrates how variations in verse communicate "the delicate psychological process the poem describes."

Assesses Chaucer's uses of alliteration as recurrent adornment despite the poet's distance from the so-called alliterative tradition. Focuses on the role of alliteration in various kinds of rhetorical situations (high style, courtliness, prayer, and…

Eleven articles by various authors on the functions of prologues and epilogues. For fives essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Prologues et épilogues dans la littérature anglaise under Alternative Title.

Late-medieval changes in monastic life affected the presentation of monks in secular English literature, including works by Langland, Chaucer, and Lydgate. Chaucer's presentation of monks in GP, MkT, and ShT reflects the "new monk," who uses…

Similarities between Lee's "Get on the Bus" and CT include the following: a pilgrimage motif, shifting narrative levels, the figure of a Host, a similar cast of characters, and themes such as inconclusiveness and complicated Christian resolution.

Vitz surveys the influences and echoes of liturgical wording and practice in a range of medieval literature--English, French, Italian, narrative, lyrical, parodic, etc. Includes focused treatments of "La Queste del Saint Graal," "The Roman de la…

Critical review of two applied textual theories, exposing their weaknesses in light of recent theory and revealing their ongoing utility. Includes discussion of Laura Hibbard Loomis's arguments that Th indicates Chaucer's firsthand knowledge of the…

Traces the knowledge and recognition of Boccaccio in English literary tradition from his obscured status as "Lollius" in Chaucer's TC to clearer acknowledgment in Lydgate and Dryden.

Explores crossing patterns of suspense in TC: the "maximal audience suspense and minimal participants' suspense" of the early books are reversed in Books 4 and 5. Attitudes toward predestination complicate the patterns.

Introduces Chaucer and his works, with focus on CT, and provides commentary on context, themes, and critical approaches. The guide is aimed at high school students or students early in college.

Tajima discusses the status of English study in Japan, providing a discursive bibliography of studies on linguistic topics: parts of speech, metrics, onomastics, etc. Addresses Old English to Modern English, with significant attention to Chaucer.…

Bauer compares examples of anti-Jewish discourse in the "Ludus Coventriae" ("deicide"), PrT ("ritual murder"), and the Croxton Play of the Sacrament ("desecration of the host"). All three texts criminalize, victimize, and dehumanize Jews,…

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

Translation of Rom into Japanese.

Dubs considers medieval notions of simultaneity; describes Boethius's concept of eternity; explores Chaucer's uses of the zodiac in CT (FranT, MLT, GP, NPT) and Astr; and considers spring as the natural and spiritual season of renewal connected with…