D'Arcens, Louise.
Philologie im Netz, Supplement 4 (2009): 21-40.
Focusing on the role of Hermiene Ulrich in formulating the modern language curriculum at Queensland in 1911, D'Arcens notes the "frustrating" historical pattern of exclusion of women scholars from medieval studies, particularly Chaucer studies.
The essays in this special issue (43.4) of the "The Chaucer Review" open new perspectives on Chaucer's works, placing them in the context of the "new impulses toward quantification and measurement" in and beyond late medieval England.
Classen, Albrecht, ed.
New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009.
Twenty-three essays on literary and historical topics ranging from ideas of Rome to medieval European waste. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Urban Space in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age under Alternative Title.
Lewis, James R., and Evelyn Dorothy Oliver.
Detroit: Visible Ink, 2009.
A popular handbook to dream psychology, dream lore, the history of interpretations of dreams, and dreaming in various cultures, with an entry on Chaucer (pp. 38-40) that comments on his biography and his dream-vision poetry. First published in 1995.
Kennedy, Kathleen E.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Examines a variety of medieval social relations as forms of "maintenance," i.e., "being provided or providing the wherewithal to live." Lord-retainer, master-servant, and husband-wife relations are analogous forms of maintenance that inform one…
Fifteen essays on topics related to sacred and secular English manuscripts of the late Middle Ages. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Tributes to Kathleen L. Scott under Alternative Title.
Describes various kinds of poverty in England in the second half of the fourteenth century, summarizing economic and social factors and assessing their representation in various works of literature in English and Latin across a range of genres.…
Gust, Geoffrey W.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Gust seeks to "reenergize persona theory" for future Chaucer scholarship, arguing that Chaucer's "autofictional" persona should be regarded as the central topic not only of Chaucer's works but also of studies of his reception and literary history at…
Sidhu, Nicole Nolan.
Literature Compass 6 (2009): 864-85.
Sidhu surveys recent attention to gender in medieval studies and assesses the "continuing marginalization" of gender studies. Recurrent references to Chaucer studies.
Scanlon, Larry.
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature 1100-1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 165-78.
Scanlon introduces Chaucer as the "most monumental of English poets," summarizes Chaucer's biography, surveys his works and their reception, and comments on the difficulties of dealing with his legacy: especially in CT, Chaucer is "eager to disavow"…
Scala, Elizabeth, and Sylvia Federico, eds.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Nine essays by various authors and an introduction by the editors "look beyond the absolute horizon of Marxist historicism in ways that display concern with how we know, with the limits of our knowledge, and with ourselves as presumably knowing…
Scala, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Scala and Sylvia Federico, eds. The Post-Historical Middle Ages ((New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 191-214.
Indicts the "patrilineal logic by which the [masculine] gender of historicism is perpetuated and reproduced," surveying how recent publications in medieval studies (especially Chaucer studies) embody the structures of the "patriarchal family."
Ransom, Daniel J.
Chaucer Review 43 (2009): 376-99.
An examination of Chaucer's use of temporal terminology--from references to "eternity and perpetuity" to references to seconds and moments, including seasons, days, nights, and hours--suggests that he uses such terminology with a modicum of…
Despite abundant evidence of their being held in high regard by contemporary society, male oaths of friendship are consistently "satirized, broken, and/or ridiculed" in Chaucer's works, suggesting "an overarching distrust of such relationships" on…
Mann, Jill.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Examines "how animals mean" in beast fable, beast epic, and related literature in classical and medieval traditions, focusing on the uses of animals in Marie de France, Nigel of Longchamp, "The Owl and the Nightingale," the Reynard tradition,…
Introduction to late medieval social and literary history, focusing on Chaucer. Illustrated with modern footage and reproductions from medieval life and narrated by Peter Morgan Jones. Interspersed with portions of an interview with Terry Jones that…
Knutson, Karla.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.06 (2009): n.p.
Knutson examines medieval ideas of innocence associated with penitential forgiveness in CT, "Pearl," and medieval pageant plays, suggesting that a later concept of innocence--a lack of "knowledge or experience"--shaped William Godwin's and Mary Eliza…
Davis, Isabel.
Literature Compass 6 (2009): 842-63.
Davis assesses late medieval, first-person narration in English literature as a rhetorical and allegorical device and as an autobiographical stance. She comments on the influence of Augustine and Boethius and explores a range of Middle English…
Chen, Hsiaojane Anna.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.06 (2009): n.p.
Considers Astr and CT within a larger analysis of the formation of intra- and extra-familial kinship bonds. Such bonds are rooted in education and common experiences.
Facing-page translation of selections from CT into informal, colloquial modern prose. A brief introduction characterizes the pilgrims and the characters in selected tales; selections include GP, KnT, MilT, WBPT, PardPT, Th, and NPT.
Yu examines the changing roles of literary rhetoric and dialectic, poesy and logic, from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. Chaucer is cited as a writer whose use of irony reflects changes in the understanding of logic.
Whitehead, Christiania.
Rebecca Lemon, and others, eds. The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature. (Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), pp. 134-51.
Whitehead surveys Chaucer's engagement with the Bible and biblical texts in CT and suggests a parallel between the poem's dialogic structure and the fourteenth-century debate over Wycliffite ideology. While parts of CT may corroborate certain…
Urban, Misty Rae.
Dissertation Abstracts International A69.12 (2009): n.p.
Using figures from Middle English literature (including Chaucer's Constance and Medea), Urban argues that the literature both dramatizes and "interrogate[s] the prevailing gender ideology."
Considers dream visions in the works of Chaucer and his successors (Hoccleve, Lydgate, Skelton, and Spenser), arguing that these dreams break down "binary" notions, including those of body/mind, gender, and text/reader.
