Browse Items (16472 total)

The ways these three pilgrims use four rhetorical devices--"occupatio," "brevitas," "digressio," and "descriptio"--reveals their personalities. The Knight's self-conscious narrative stance shows his pretensions: his insensitivity in his use of…

Assesses the styles and rhetorical devices of FranT. Matching rhetoric to meaning, Chaucer's "modulation of style" in FranT helps to characterize the narrator and the major characters of the Tale and to guide readers' understanding of the variable…

Lollard insistence on plain speech brought about a split between plain and literary language that persisted into the sixteenth century. Harris considers the "Pearl" poet and the fifteenth-century reception of Chaucer.

Reviews recent rhetorical analyses of TC, examining how and how much "rhetoric affects the composition" of TC. Kokonis first reviews the "history and evolution of rhetoric"; then shows how rhetoric became part of "medieval aesthetic tradition," and…

Ballad 285, in praise of Chaucer, draws from Brunetto Latini's definition of philosophy in his "livres dou tresor."

Explores similarities between ambiguity and rhetorical invention in rhetorical tradition from Plato to the twenty-first century. Then discusses three examples of "conscious exploitation of the potential of ambiguity": "Sir Gawain and the Green…

Medieval vernacular translation recovered the classical merger of rhetorical theory with hermeneutic practice. Ancient and medieval contexts for translation are traced: the practice of rhetorical theory in translation is illustrated in Chaucer's…

Verbal action in Chaucer may take the form of a series of verbal encounters, as in BD; or a long monologue, as Dorigen's is and Chauntecleer's may as well be. Chauntecleer talks himself out of fear of dreams; Dorigen talks herself out of suicide;…

When Chaucer looked at old books, he not only saw the decorous verbal projections of medieval rhetorical archetypes, he heard the voice of a man like and unlike himself. The idea/language model which "rhetorica"-turned-"poetria" had generated became…

Posits the centrality of the Pardoner (rather than the marginality assumed by many critics) to CT. The "confidence game" of his narration parallels Chaucer's own rhetorical approach and informs those of his critics. Chaucer illustrates the…

Richard Lanham's game ("play") theories contribute to an understanding of FranT and PardT. The study of rhetoric as game emphasizes Chaucer's creative vision rather than a moral vision.

Traces the history and theory of vernacular translation to its roots in Latin tradition, exploring classical translation theory as a product of the academic struggle between rhetoric and grammar (or hermeneutics). Medieval translation, a kind of…

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,…

Argues that Lydgate's allusions to HF are part of a larger effort to deny the accessibility of truth through language, which the author describes as a "Chaucerian poetics of ambiguity and skepticism."

Describes structural devices found in the medieval "artes poeticae," for example, those in treatises by Matthew of Vendome, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and John of Garland, illustrating them with various literary works, including works by Chaucer. Discusses…

Like Boccaccio's "Decameron," CT reveals awareness of medieval principles of game and play articulated by Aristotle, Aquinas, and Albertano of Brescia.

The ethos of the Canterbury preachers reveals Chaucer's distinctive self-consciousness about medieval rhetorical issues. The Pardoner's emphasis on pathos contrasts the Parson's emphasis on logos. NPT is an act of self-display in which the narrator…

The portraits of GP, which depict types, belong to the tradition of rhetorical description, not of satire. Epideictic rhetoric provides for representation of virtue and vice alike and aims at the unity of perspective that we find in the descriptions…

A range of medieval literary portraits derive techniques from rhetorical memory devices and, in turn, shape notions of subjectivity. Mulligan considers Langland's Lady Meed, the Green Knight, Henryson's Cresseid, and various Chaucerian characters,…

Surveys critics' attention to Chaucer's word-play, and shows through multiple examples that such play is more common in his works than previously observed, especially his early works. Clarifies kinds of word-play in medieval rhetoric and…

Deals with late ME pronunciation shown in rhymes of literary works written mostly in East Anglia and the Southeast Midlands, including London, 1300-1500.

Argues that rhyme royal was rarely used in Middle English romances because it "mitigates against some of the aims and purposes" of the genre, creating "a self-consciousness about temporality that presses against the fairy-tale temporality of romance"…

Identifies characteristic features of the rhymes and rhyme-elements in CT; a prolegomenon to an in-progress "Rhyme Concordance to the Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer."

Using the linguistic theories of Charles Pierce, Wimsatt proposes that "the function of rhyme in Chaucer's poetry ... is to help organize the sounds to create a sign independent of a particular verbal sense" (18). Sound in poetry is carried in two…

CT contains risings and fallings, which occur naturally within the text in a variety of genres, tones and modes. They show Chaucer's shift toward Italian-based humanism and away from the Christian tradition. Wilhelm examines KnT, MilT, MLT, ClT,…