Van Dyke, Carolynn.
Madison, [N. J.] : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005.
Examines agency as theme and narrative technique throughout Chaucer's corpus, considering the "multifariousness" of the topic. Agency does not refer exclusively to the human will; it also "embraces innumerable forces that operate interdependently" -…
Consideration of authorial agency enables professors and students to explore relationships between personal ethos and literary texts. Ethical criticism frames discussions of whether Chaucer raped Cecily Chaumpaigne or whether Flannery O'Connor was a…
Duncan, Thomas G., ed.
Woodbridge, Suffolk, and Rochester, N.Y. : D. S. Brewer, 2005.
An introduction and twelve essays by various authors survey critical issues related to Middle English lyrics - courtly, popular, religious, political, etc. Individual essays consider topics such as manuscripts, meter and editing, carols, lyrics in…
Explores issues of exemplarity and applicability in examples of Middle English literature--"Book of the Knight of the Tower," Gower's "Confessio Amantis," Lydgate's "Fall of Princes," Henryson's "Testment of Cresseid," and CT and TC. Chaucerian…
Richmond, Velma Bourgeois.
Christianity & Literature 54 (2005): 363-96.
Four historical paintings by Ford Madox Brown (1821-93) exhibit the interplay among literature, art, and religion in Victorian medievalism. Chaucer is the primary focus in The Seeds and Fruits of English Poetry (1845) and Chaucer at the Court of…
Quinn, William A.
Studies in Medievalism 14 (2005): 200-216.
Monroe's essay "Chaucer and Langland," published in her journal Poetry in 1915, argued that Chaucer's preference for French forms and rhythms had cut off later English poetry from the true native tradition represented by Langland's alliterative…
Sadlack, Erin A.
Dissertation Abstracts International 66 (2005): 1782A
In a larger discussion of women's letter-writing, Sadlack notes that "Ovid, Chaucer, and Gower suggest that letters are often the best means for women to communicate."
Carruthers, Leo, and Adrian Papahagi, eds.
Paris : Harmattan, 2005.
Eleven articles in French and English by various authors exploring the themes of youth and age in Old and Middle English literature. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Jeunesse et vieillesse under Alternative Title.
Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 27 (2005): 129-69
Compiles evidence for the presence of Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians in late medieval England, using as sources public records, sermons, and toponyms. Chaucer likely had significant contact with non-Christians--or recently converted…
Staley, Lynn.
University Park : Pennsylvania State University, 2005.
Explores how late medieval English literature helps us to understand contemporary political events and aristocratic efforts to develop a successful rhetoric of power amid shifts in control. Chapter 1 focuses on Richard II, political discourse, and…
Hanna, Ralph.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Analyzes the cultural conditions of literary production and the books produced in England, 1300-1380, focusing on English vernacular works but also attending to Latin and French ones, seeking to understand the textual communities defined by such…
Galloway, Andrew.
David F. Johnson and Elaine Treharne, eds. Readings in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 288-305.
Galloway examines the claims to authority--traditional and innovative--found in prologues to Middle English works, with special attention to Chaucer's HF, LGWP, GP, and other prologues in CT (e.g., WBP). The essay identifies four types of prologues…
Edwards, David L.
London : Darton, Longman, and Todd, 2005.
Appreciative criticism of seven major poets, aware of academic theory (formalist, psychoanalytic, feminist) but addressed to a nonacademic audience. Chapter 1, "Chaucer" (pp. 1-33), considers Chaucer's characterization, moral tolerance, comedy,…
Gilles, Sealy, and Sylvia Tomasch.
Robert M. Stein and Sandra Pierson Prior, eds. Reading Medieval Culture: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Hanning (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), pp. 364-83.
Describes the "scientific humanism" that underlies the scholarship of Manly and Rickert and that prompted them to construct Chaucer as "an ideal bourgeois." Their efforts to establish Chaucer as an originary ideal through a wholly authoritative text…
Stein, Robert M., ed.
Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, 2005.
Twenty essays by various authors and a bibliography of Hanning's publications. The essays are divided into three sections: history and romance, Chaucer's works, and Italian contexts. For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Reading…
Johnson, David F., and Elaine Treharne, eds.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2005.
Twenty-five essays by various contributors, addressing individual works or genres and designed for "students undertaking courses in Old and Middle English." The book includes recurrent references to Chaucer's works. For two essays that pertain to his…
