Bale, Anthony.
Literature Compass 5.5 (2008): 918-34.
Surveys medieval notions of authorship from the twelfth century to the late fifteenth century, commenting on topics such as anonymity, laureateship, Mandeville's "Travels," "The Cloud of Unknowing," "The Book of Margery Kempe," and the development…
Bovaird-Abbo, Kristin Lee.
DAI A69.06 (2008): n.p.
Considers Chaucer's use of Arthurian legend, from his use in TC of the traditional French conception of Lancelot for Troilus to his examination of the subtext the legend provides for the fabric of fourteenth-century English society. In particular,…
Chaucer and other writers of the "middle strata" of English society (Gower and Langland) "imagine economic activity" in ways that are much like the views recorded in documentary writing. Such writings by societal, administrative, and governmental…
Surveys the forms, topics, and contexts of Middle English writing, clarifying its construction from various literary traditions set against a number of social, economic, and political conditions. The discussion is divided into five broad categories…
Clifton, Nicole.
Literature Compass 5.1 (2008): 158-64.
Pedagogical portfolio (containing material such as bibliography, sample syllabi, and discussion questions) for study of Middle English romances, including several works by Chaucer.
Cole, Andrew.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Post-Wycliffite writing has a different character from that which preceded it. Writers of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, including Chaucer, produced works with this novel character, often defined as heretical. Cole connects…
Cooper, Lisa H., and Andrea Denny-Brown, eds.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Eight essays by various authors, an introduction by the editors, an afterword by D. Vance Smith, and an index. The essays consider Lydgate's poetry in relation to "the role of material goods and the material world in the formation of late-medieval…
Corrie, Marilyn, ed.
Oxford: Blackwell: 2007; Reissued as a print-on-demand volume, Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Eleven essays on topics concerning late medieval English literature and its contexts: Signs and Symbols (Barry Windeatt), Religious Belief (Marilyn Corrie), Women and Literature (Catherine Sanok), The Past (Andrew Galloway), Production and…
Denny-Brown analyzes sartorial changes accompanying the figure of Fortune from the twelfth century through the late medieval period, considering (along with works by other authors) Chaucer's For, Bo, Form Age, Wom Unc, BD, and MerT. Chaucer's uses of…
Hernández Pérez, Ma Beatriz.
Liminar: Estudios sociales y humanisticos 6.2 (2008): 15-30
Examines Chaucer's works, particularly BD and LGW, in connection to female patronage networks in the late fourteenth century in England, France, and the Iberian Peninsula. Argues that the new cultural and political role of many aristocratic women had…
Gillespie, Vincent.
Mary Carr, K. P. Clarke, and Marco Nievergelt, eds. On Allegory: Some Medieval Aspects and Approaches (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2008), pp. 231-56.
Surveys distinctions between the restrictive "allegory of theologians" and the expansive "allegory of the poets," arguing that Chaucer's poetry is a radical form of the latter. Chaucer's works decenter the author and thereby pose "new kinds of…
Considers TC, MLT, and LGW in the larger context of the idea of "raptus" (rape or abduction) and its implications for national and other borders and for female status.
Foster, Michael.
New York and Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2008.
Foster revisits the question of Chaucer's narrator as a fictional construct, gauging responses that the verisimilitude of Chaucer's narrative might have invited in a contemporary audience. In WBP, Jankyn's actions as a reader comment on Chaucer's…
Uses KnT and TC (among other works) as case texts for a study of recognition within various forms of medieval romance. In particular, Manion argues that these Chaucerian texts use recognition as a means of speculating on the limits of interpersonal…
Lundeen, Stephanie Thompson.
DAI A69.05 (2008): n.p.
Considers Chaucer's works in the context of medieval poetry, approached here as "instantiations of performance," i.e., understood as interplay among author, performer, audience, and the material form of the texts.
Léglu, Catherine E., and Stephen J. Milner, eds.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Ten essays by various authors explore topics related to the "Consolatio" of Boethius and its impact within vernacular traditions. The essays are divided equally under two headings: "Consolation and Desire" and "Consolation and Loss." For two essays…
Knapp, Peggy A.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Applies Kantian aesthetic principles to "display the interanimation of sensible detail with intelligible order" in TC and CT and considers the two poems in light of Hans-Georg Gadamer (on art of the past), Ludwig Wittgenstein (intellectual play), and…
Quinn, Esther Casier.
Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2008.
Identifies how and where Chaucer's poetry engages contemporary society and politics, as well as how it adjusts to changes in these arenas. As a court poet, Chaucer was knowledgeable about worldly affairs but unwilling to comment or criticize openly.…
Pugh theorizes "the compulsory nature of queerness in creating heterosexuals," exploring how a number of masculine characters in Middle English literature are "rendered queerly normative due to external forces that reimagine their masculinity as…
Neal, Derek G.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Examines frames of cultural reference (legal, domestic, physical, and literary--especially romance), arguing that "two versions of masculinity defined the socially performed lives of men in late medieval England." The first version was normative and…
Using the medieval concepts of "intromissive optics" and the passive viewer, Martin suggests that Chaucer in TC, KnT, and MerT employs conventions from outside the romance genre at the moment of sight. She contrasts this technique with that of…
