Browse Items (16472 total)

Fourteen essays by various authors on French poets Machaut, Froissart, Deschamps, Christine de Pizan, Charles d'Orelans, and Villon. The essays emphasize the determining material effects of the courtly mode of production, especially the roles of the…

Text and translation with introduction, notes, and bibliography, including comparative studies of Chaucer and Machaut. Influences on BD, LGW, TC.

Palmer reviews modern critical methods (including Robertsonianism) designed to close "the gap between the pastness of ancient texts and the modern context of their reading and analysis."

Although the outlook of BD is fundamentally different from Machaut's "Dit de la fonteinne amoureuse," the later influenced far more profoundly than has been noted the structure and motifs of BD.

Argues that in reading BD medieval audiences would also have reread Machaut's "Fonteinne Amoureuse" and recalled other works by Chaucer's predecessor. Chaucer's derivative version of the account of Ceyx and Alcyone "thematizes the story as a…

Palmer argues that LGW is not merely a collection of tales retold from Ovid; it is also the story of the narrator's problematic relationship to the God of Love.

Reviews and extends arguments for recognizing the intertextual relations of Chaucer's LGW and the works of Guillaume de Machaut, emphasizing their explorations of the "poetics of authorship." Extends this notion to the fiction of Philip Roth and…

Chaucer's contributions to the novel merit further study. Like Cervantes, Chaucer shows concern for problems which become increasingly important in the development of the novel, notably the author's freeing himself from historical sources and the…

Similarities abound in the writings of Chaucer and Joyce, e.g., concern with English as an appropriate language for literature and with authorial presence in fiction. Most importantly, Chaucer and Joyce, both immersed in the Catholic ethos, share a…

By subtle allusions and a skillful balance of opposites, Chaucer reveals that the Wife of Bath conspired with Jankyn to kill her fourth husband, caused Jankyn's death by betraying him to her friends, and became a garish, cynical old woman incapable…

Argues that in translating Renaud de Louens's "Le Livre de Mellibee" in his own Mel, Chaucer created an "overtly rhetorical style for purposes of parody." Probably an expansion of an earlier, abridged translation by Chaucer, Mel is characterized by…

Gauges the influence of Navarre on English literature at two crucial junctures: the Norman Conquest and during the march of Edward, the Black Prince, when both Chaucer and John Chandos were involved. Reproduces several archival documents and includes…

Various Middle English authors succeeded in making London an urban, laicized intellectual center that balanced the clerical legacies of Cambridge and Oxford. These authors explored various academic disciplines (e.g., alchemy for Chaucer) in a manner…

Fictional prequel to the CT, set in 1366, when Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims (many from CT) are involved with a kidnapping and murder plot while traveling to Canterbury.

Chaucer does not attempt to work within the framework of such established literary forms as romance and fabliau. The flaws in the genre approach become evident when the tales are judged from the broader perspective of medieval rhetoric and poetic.

For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Métamorphoses under Alternative Title.

Studies "depictions of armor" in CT, Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur," and Spenser's "The Faerie Queene," "exploring how these works help us understand medievalism in contemporary media," and investigating "how armored bodies function as a way to think…

Chaucer refuses to allow closure in TC, either for Troilus or for the poem itself. For Chaucer, transgression is inevitable, closure is impossible, and the poet seems to "celebrate" this fact.

Explores the sociocultural influence of sacerdotal celibacy on literature. Capable of performing the Mass, the "special body" of the priest became a literary icon, aligned with the Latin language in opposition to Lollardy. Lay writing emerged against…

Pappano characterizes late medieval craft guilds and the roles they play in CT, particularly the recurrent concern with "male artisan identity." Through MilPT, Chaucer critiques the exclusionary nature of "craft fraternalism."

Assesses the characterization and culinary skills of the Cook, commenting on details of GP, CkP, and ManP, and commending his variety of cooking techniques. Includes recipes for "Chicken with the Marrowbones" and "Mortreux" (GP, 380, 384).

Part of Paravicini's three-volume study of the crusades against Lithuania undertaken by the Teutonic order, focusing on literary backgrounds to the chivalric imagination underlying the crusades. Includes evidence of tensions between crusading and…

Chaucer's portrayal of the Monk and of the monk in ShT is complex and sympathetic. Contemporary expectations about monks are clear in the Host's reactions to the Monk. Daun John fits the stereotype but may be motivated by a desire to chastise…

Psychoanalyzes Walter of ClT as one who tests Griselda's submissiveness to assure his own freedom and to vindicate his choice of her as a wife. Griselda seeks personal glory in her subservience. They are "two sick people in a pathological…

Absolves the Merchant of the illegal practices, usurious dealings, and insolvency previously inferred by critics, providing historical information and examples that indicate that the GP description portrays a skilled practitioner who "gives a public…