Munoz G., Adrián.
Anuario de Letras Modernas 11 (2002-03): 47-52.
A fanciful conversion between Chaucer and the author about MilT, touching on questions of genre and theme. Chaucer's portion of the dialogue is in mock Middle English.
Ziolkowski, Jan.
Journal of Medieval Latin 12 (2002): 90-113
Traces the tradition of characterizing stories as "old wives' tales" from Plato through Apuleius and Jerome to Chaucer's WBT, showing how the genre draws power from the paradox that "old women were the least powerful members of society and yet the…
Burnley, J. D.
D. Alan Cruse et al., eds. Lexikologie: Ein Internationales Handbuch zur Natur und Struktur von Wortern und Wortschatzen/Lexicology: An International Handbook on the Nature and Structure of Words and Vocabularies. 2 vols. . Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2002, 2: pp. 1468-71.
Describes the historical and regional characteristics of Chaucer's vocabulary, his particular uses of various registers, and how he adapts them to circumstances and contexts.
Robinson surveys developments in electronic editing and comments on the strengths and limitations of electronic scholarly editions, calling for greater collaboration among scholars and for increased fluidity and interactivity in the editions. Draws…
Examines several aspects of Middle English tail-rhyme romances, contrasting them with couplet romances, comparing them with Japanese "sekkyo," and exploring their relations with the "cult of the Virgin," the Holy Family, and contemporary visual art.…
Houwen, L. A. J. R.
Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso, eds. Fear and Its Representations in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), pp. 17-30.
Chauntecleer's responses to the fox in his dream and in his initial sighting of the beast are rooted in Aristotelian traditions of psychology and natural antipathy, here traced from their classical roots through their medieval adaptations. The…
Like the Valiant Woman of Proverbs 31:10-31, Cecilia brings honor to her husband, manages her household well, works untiringly, and faces danger with fearless self-confidence. In contrast to Harry Bailly, who sets up the rules and pragmatic externals…
Close reading of Jerome's "Against Jovinian" indicates that in WBP the Wife of Bath agrees with Jerome, even though she shifts the emphasis from the superiority of virginity to the acceptability of marriage. At Jankyn's death, she becomes, like her…
Collette, Carolyn P.
Christoph Huber and Henrike Lähnemann, eds. Courtly Literature and Clerical Culture / Höfische Literatur und Klerikerkultur / Littérature courtoise et culture cléricale. Selected Papers from the Tenth Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, Universitat Tübingen, Deutschland, 28 Juli-3 August 2001 (Tübingen: Attempto, 2002), pp. 177-94.
Collette reads the end of CT against Philippe de Mézières' "Songe du vieil pelerin," indicating Chaucer's connections with contemporary Anglo-French literature and exploring the relations between politics and morality in four Tales: alchemy as a…
Kowalik, Barbara.
Maria Edelson, ed. Studies in Literature and Culture in Honour of Professor Irena Janicka-Świderska Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2002), pp. 100-110.
Increased concern with female characters in KnT distinguishes it from traditional epics, and its presentation of women and gender relationships embodies "evolutionary changes" in the romance genre. Nonetheless, Emily is imprisoned at the end "in yet…
Boyd, David Lorenzo.
Claude J. Summers, ed. The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: A Reader's Companion to the Writers and Their Works, from Antiquity to the Present. Rev. ed. (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 147-48.
Boyd summarizes the tension in medieval tradition between the promotion of homosocial bonding and the proscription of sodomy. He characterizes Chaucer's treatment of male homosexuality in CT as typically homophobic.
Nohara, Yasuhiro.
English Review (Momoyama Gakuin University) 17 (2002): 35-49.
Diachronic exploration of the morphology and function of English "independent" (as opposed to interrogative and conjunctive) adverbs, with examples from Old English, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Sidney Sheldon. In Japanese, with English…
Driver, Martha W.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 228-49.
Driver examines John Speed's portrait of Chaucer (first printed version, Speght 1598) as a representation of "Elizabethan nationalism" and an emblem of Chaucer's reception. She also discusses Speed's career as a cartographer and historian and…
Various concepts of "otherness" in SqT--oriental setting, magic, non-human speech, female centrality--reflect Chaucer's "reshaping" of Ovidian "transformation" myth. His efforts to enter "into feminized animal subjectivity . . . intertwine with…
Twombly, Robert G.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 250-69.
Examines the rioters' encounter with the Old Man in PardT in light of Dominican meditation on death as a form of "affective psychology," exemplified in Henry Suso's "The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom." In this genre, "meeting" Death is a means to…
Grossi, Joseph L., Jr.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 298-309.
Grossi compares details of SNT with Jacob of Voragine's version in the "Golden Legend" and the Franciscan "abridgement" of the life of Saint Cecilia, arguing that Chaucer "sought to widen the intellectual divide between Roman paganism and primitive…
Thompson, N. S.
Jay Parini, ed. British Writers Classics. Vol. 1 (New York: Scribner, 2002), pp. 41-63. Electronic edition, 2003.
Summary description of CT, commenting (in the Ellesmere order) on each of the fragments, source materials of the tales, and the ways that Chaucer combines traditional and innovative concerns. The CT is a "work held together by contrast." Includes a…
Davis Todd F., and Kenneth Womack.
Todd F. Davis and Kenneth Womack. Formalist Criticism and Reader-Response Theory (New York: Palgrave, 2002), pp. 123-35.
In in order to demonstrate the utility of reader-response criticism, Davis and Womack analyze ClT in light of Gérard Genette's theory of narratology and TC, Linda Hutcheon's theory of parody. In ClT, Chaucer controls tempo and reaction through…
Reprints Clouston's two-volume work (1887), with its original Introduction and Index, commentary on the brass steed of SqT, and chapter entitled "Chaucer's 'Pardoner's Tale'" (pp. 490-511) that traces the sources and analogues of the Tale. Adds an…
