Kanno, Masahiko.
Hiroshima Studies in English Language and Literature 29 (1979): 54-68.
The simile applied to the Friar--"His nekke 'whit' was 'as the flour-de-lys'"--functions externally and internally. The outward sign of his neck is symbolic of his inner degraded state of mind, which shows physiognomically a mark of licentiousness…
Chance, Jane.
Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, eds. The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder (Milwaukee, Wis.: Marquette University Press, 2006), pp. 153-68.
In his fiction, Chance contends, Tolkien subverts traditional class distinctions, and his studies of Chaucer reflect a similar sensibility.
To find his own poetic voice, Chaucer's dreamer in HF impersonates the non-canonical subjectivities and voices of women and animals in the form of Dido, the eagle, and the monster-woman Fame. By doing so, he turns away from masculine literary…
Mairey, Aude.
Dominique Valérian, foreword. Succéder au Moyen Age: LIIIe Congrès de la SHMESP (Rome, 26-29 mai 2022). Congrès des Médiévistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur (53e: 2022: Rome, Italie) (Paris: Editions de la Sorbonne, 2023), pp. 214-31.
Affiliates the success, succession, and monumentalization of Chaucer in fifteenth-century literature with Lancastrian ascendancy and status, quoting and analyzing excerpts from Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Caxton.
A history of laughter in Western literature, focusing on the relation between laughter and literature, and surveying ancient, medieval, and modern traditions. In his Introduction, Sanders credits Chaucer with associating the roles of the feminine…
Barney, Stephen A.
Chaucer Review 16 (1981): 18-37.
The words "sodeny(ly)" and "proces" are keys to Chaucer's narrative skill. In both his serious and his comical narratives there are sudden changes in events, sudden shifts in emotions. He usually makes the sudden seem humorous, ridiculous, or…
Orlemanski, Julie.
In The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales. https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu, 2017. Relocated 2025 at https://opencanterburytales.lsusites.org/
Explores "mortal embodiment" in KnT, particularly in the descriptions of Arcite's lovesickness, injuries, and death, contrasting their physicality with the metaphysical perspective of Theseus's final speech. Designed for pedagogical use, includes…
Klassen, Norm.
Holly Faith Nelson, Lynn R. Szabo, and Jens Zimmermann, eds. Through a Glass Darkly: Suffering, the Sacred, and the Sublime in Literature and Theory ([Waterloo, Ont.]: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010), pp. 39-53.
Without a shift in tone, Chaucer both appreciates and censures the fruitless love depicted in the Temple of Venus in PF. By fusing "joy and judgment," he evokes paradoxically the "deeper joy" of beauty.
Surveys British literary responses to "some aspects of the Muslim spiritual system," identifying instances in which British literature was influenced by Sufi mysticism or reflects awareness of it. Includes summary (pp. 37-39) of parallels between…
Assesses CT as a web of Tales and voices, focusing on KnT, MilT as a response to KnT, the Marriage Group, and Chaucer's Italian sources, especially Boccaccio. Includes sections on the adaptations of KnT in Shakespeare, in Fletcher's "Two Noble…
Wenzel, Siegfried, ed.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984.
The anonymous "Summa," dating from the middle of the thirteenth century, is the ultimate source of the "remedia" sections of Chaucer's ParsT. This critical edition, based on one of the nine surviving manuscripts, is accompanied by a translation…
Woodward, Daniel,and Maria Fredericks.
Martin Stevens and Daniel Woodward, eds. The Ellesmere Chaucer: Essays in Interpretation (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library; Tokyo: Yushodo, 1995): pp. 29-39.
Summarizes the operations and observations attendant upon restoring, photographing, and rebinding Ellesmere during preparation of the new facsimile.
White, Beatrice.
Essays and Studies 38 (1985): 1-11.
Accounts of love from chronicles and letters show that historical love in the Middle Ages was as rich, varied, and earthy as even Chaucer could imagine.
Taylor, Willene P.
Xavier University Studies 9.1 (1970): 1-18.
Argues that both TC (particularly the Epilogue) and LGW evince Chaucer's "good-natured humor" which is "never vicious" but rather "shows a warm and compassionate understanding of the foibles of human beings, regardless of their sex." LGW is a "mock…
DiMarco, Vincent.
English Studies 78 (1997): 330-33.
Replies to M. C. Seymour's identification of seven satiric loci in SqT arguing that Chaucer's manipulations of convention may be seen as innovation rather than parody.
Argues that Daniel 13.20 is a source of or influence on details of MerT 5.2138-48, and suggests that pictorial representations of Susannah and the Elders and details from the alliterative poem "Susannah" reveal ironic dimensions in Chaucer's scene of…
Zeikowitz, Richard E.
Tison Pugh and Marcia Smith Marzec,eds. Men and Masculinities in Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde" (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008), pp. 148-60.
Zeikowitz articulates the "largely unnarrated 'ocular logic' of the exchanges between Troilus and Pandarus" in Book 1 of TC and "teases out the subtle homoeroticism underlying their interaction." The essay focuses on the cinematic technique of…
Wada, Yoko.
Hisayuki Sasamoto et al., eds. Hearts to the English-American Language and Literature: Essays Presented to Emeritus Professor Sutezo Hirose in Honour of His 88th Birthday (Osaka: Osaka Kyoiku Tosho, 1999), pp. 209-20 (in Japanese).
Assesses the swearing by St. Ronyon in PardP and explores its dark ironies.
Scanlon, Larry.
R. A. Shoaf, ed. Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde: "Subgit to alle Poesye": Essays in Criticism. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, no. 104. Pegasus Paperbacks, no. 10 (Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1992), pp. 211-23.
Explains Fortune as a figure that embodies historical flux and affirms aristocratic privilege. In TC, references to Fortune do not provide a philosophical norm against which to test the attitudes of the characters; the references assert politically…
Assesses the location and implications of one stanza from TC (1.400-406) as quoted in the "Disce mori," a fifteenth-century manual of religious instruction addressed to "Dame Alice." The quotation indicates that some may have read TC as a warning…
