Howard, Donald R.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966.
Explores the medieval psychology of temptation and sin, anchored in Scripture and patristic writing--the three-fold lures of gluttony (flesh), avarice (world), and vainglory (devil), resisted, ideally, by "contemptus mundi." Treats TC (pp, 79-160) as…
Wood, Chauncey.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1970.
Investigates Chaucer's treatment of astrological imagery, gauging him to be "quite high among the skeptics on the mediaeval scale of belief in astrology" and explicating the tone and meaning of his astrological passages, their comic or satiric…
Ganim, John M.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Explores stylistic and structural discontinuities and the resulting narrator-audience relationship in TC, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes," and Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid."
Szittya, Penn R.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Hostile propositions about the friars ("antifraternalism") in polemical tracts, works of theology, and literary fictions belong to a common literary tradition that began with the polemics against the friars of William of Saint Amour, with arguments…
Wenzel, Siegfried.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Explores the relationship between the lyric and late-medieval preaching, the sermon context, Latin manuscripts of sermons,the Latin hymn tradition, Friar John de Grimestone, preaching verse styles, oral traditions, and homiletic use of verse, with…
Olson, Paul.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.
CT reflects the social, political, economic, and intellectual milieu of the late fourteenth century: the tales arise from Chaucer's deep concern about contemporary crises and his conviction that the "parlement"--all levels of society engaged in…
Courtenay, William J.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Chapters on the fourteenth-century educational framework, schools of the religious orders, higher education, patronage of ideas, English ties with Continental education, English scholasticism, Oxford after the plague, and "Piety and Learning in the…
Ganim, John M.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Beginning with Kittredge's argument that the thematic and structural unity of CT lies in the pilgrims and their dramatic interchange, and moving to the counterarguments of Muscatine (1957), Robertson (1962), Jordan (1967), Pearsall (1985), and Benson…
Strohm, Paul. With an appendix by A. J. Prescott.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992.
An introduction and seven essays explore the mutual contingency of history and literature in late-medieval England. The collection interprets historical texts for contemporary attitudes and ideologies, discovering, for example, the "carnivalesque"…
Lerer, Seth.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Examines Chaucer's reception in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and its relation to the historical development of poetic identity. In their responses to and depictions of Chaucer, such writers as Lydgate, Clanvowe, James I, Hawes, and…
Gellrich, Jesse M.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Examines the ways oral tradition continues to influence writing in late-medieval literature, considering works of Ockham and Wyclif, chronicles of the reigns of Edward III and Richard II, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and KnT.
Huppé, Bernard F., and D. W. Robertson Jr.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Interprets BD and PF as allegories, offering "An Approach to Medieval Poetry" (pp. 3-31) as an introduction to exegetical or patristic criticism and a justification of the method. Explores the imagery, structures, ironic juxtapositions, and meanings…
Burlin, Robert B.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Chaucer's fictions show a logical development. The first are the "poetic fictions." In exploring the idea of authorial experience, the dream visions speculate on the poet's reaction to his audience and on the value of poetic activity. The second…
Crane, Susan.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Romance is the medieval genre that most clearly dramatizes gendered identity, focusing on "courtship, marriage, lineal concerns, primogeniture, and sexual maturation." Chaucer's KnT, WBT, SqT, FranT, and Th reflect and confront masculine identity…
Marenbon, John.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015.
Examines the influence of paganism on Christian writers from the fifth century to the eighteenth century. Includes a chapter on entitled "Langland and Chaucer: The Continuity of the Problem of Paganism" (pp. 214–34).
Turner, Marion/
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.
Provides a critical biography of Chaucer that tells "the story of his life and his poetry through places and spaces, rather than through strict chronology," with a "General Prologue," an "Epilogue," and twenty chapters pertaining to, for example, the…
Rush, Rebecca.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.
Considers briefly Chaucer's influence on the revival of poetic couplets in early modern English verse, especially as mediated by George Puttenham's "The Arte of English Poesie."
Turner, Marion.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022.
Combines personal appreciation and critical analysis of the Wife of Bath as a character; Chaucer's art in creating her and WBPT; and the voluminous historical reception and impact of the Wife from early scribal glosses to international modern…
Delony, Mikee C.
Priscilla Pope-Levison and John R. Levison, eds. Sex, Gender, and Christianity (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012), pp. 33–57.
Examines connections between women's weaving and preaching by focusing on Alisoun. Uses the metaphor of weaving to establish how Alisoun "wove textiles and words as a mode of female expression and critique of the patriarchal church's interpretation…
