Browse Items (16472 total)

Employing the "standard" ME dialect of the Home Counties of southeastern England as a baseline, Shackleton applies a number of quantitative variational measures (clustering, distance regressions, variant-area regressions, barrier analysis, and…

"[I]nvestigates literary and pictorial manuscripts on the subject pf alchemy in conjunction with the theories surrounding sequential art," i.e., "comics theory," considering selected works, from CYPT to modern graphic novels. Opens with a "close…

Late medieval literary and historical attitudes toward pardoners suggest that the depictions in "Piers Plowman" and PardPT are exaggerated. Shaffern documents ecclesiastical efforts to control abuse of the office.

Shakif-Ghaly scrutinizes "Yvain" and TC for medieval "dispositio" through Genettian narratology and for "manifestatio" through Anglo-American theory. Despite differences between the texts, such an analysis brings out tensions of medieval authors and…

Examines "tectonics and compositional strategies" in Chrétien's "Yvain" and in TC, focusing on "disposition" and the relationship between orality and textuality in each work.

Considers the "pulpit rhetoric" of PardPT, the friar in SumT, and MerT, arguing that they all share general techniques, imagery, and symbols of medieval sermons, without following strictly the structural formality of "artes praedicandi." Observes…

NPT is indebted to the naturalistic and mock-heroic tone of the French "Roman de Renard," as well as to an indigenous English tradition of didactic beast fables and exempla. The Priest's concluding exhortation on humility marks the point of the…

Surveys medieval attitudes toward the women featured as protagonists in Chaucer's LGW and reads Chaucer's characters in light of these attitudes, observing that they vary as "not-so-good" women and "not-so-bad" ones, a reflection of the limits of…

The progenitor of error may have been Lactantius Placidus' commentary on the "Thebaid".

Traces the development of a "salvific but antisemitic fantasy of Judaization" in western aesthetics from St. Paul to modern writers, and identifies an "alternate mode of modern poetics based in the Jewish philosophy of language and in the practice of…

Explores "important tensions" in the characterization of the Wife of Bath, interpreting the "larger subject" of WBT as the "grace of God," even though it concludes with the Wife's "irreligious" final curse. In WBP, her "masking is predictable…

Describes medieval dream psychology, both medical and Macrobian, and summarizes the realism of dreams as narrative frame in Chaucer's dream visions (BD, HF, PF, and LGWP) and as device of characterization and dramatic irony when dreams are otherwise…

Argues that Chaucer is indecisive in CT when it comes to his relation to nominalism and realism, maintaining a grey area between the two through love.

Shows how NPT, FranT, and Ret reveal the rigor of Chaucer's philosophy, comparing matter-form distinctions underlying these works with the positions of a wide range of notable philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle to Jacques Lacan and François…

Presents a "new way to conjoin Chaucer's sophisticated engagement with philosophical thought and his obvious focus on amatory concerns" in CT, arguing that the narrative "authoritatively abandons authority"--a paradox that recalls logical…

SqT dramatizes the relationship between two types of narrative: the fantastic and the metafictional. The former is seen in the mirror, ring, steed, and sword brought to Cambyuskan's court; the latter, in the response to these gifts by the courtiers…

Centers on LGW, 212-18, where Alceste, the Queen of Love, has an appearance similar to a daisy, and suggests that a source for this could be Remigius of Auxerre's "Commentum in Martianum Capellam."

MkT critiques secular masculinity, represented by the Host and the Knight; their comments about the Tale disclose more about themselves than about the Tale or its teller. Against these two figures, the "Monk remains a figure of resistance."

Examines the "boundaries between licit and illicit forms of homosocial desire" in communities in late-medieval England. Assesses various texts, including MkPT, FrT, and SumT.

An anthology of short works and excerpts from the Bible to modern poetry pertaining to the Fall and Redemption, with brief introductions and discussion questions designed for classroom use. Includes an excerpt from ParsT (10.316-57; pp. 33-36) in…

Responds to criticism of TC, especially that of C. S. Lewis on courtly love, and examines the poem's emphases on human vulnerability and limitations, reinforced by recurrent colloquialisms, juxtapositions of the sublime and the risible, and concern…

Hawthorne's "The Custom House" follows the form and structure of GP, perhaps in conscious imitation.

Both poets move between extremes of "lust" (delight, pleasure,love) and "lore" (the wisdom of the past). Gower sees lore as a passive standard, while Chaucer questions its relevance and efficacy as a moral guide. Chaucer exhibits extremes, from the…

Augustine's commentary on Matt. 7:3-5 provides context for the discussion of wrath in ParsT. Chaucer uses Augustine's distinction of the false judge, who sees his own faults mirrored in the eyes of another, to show how several of the pilgrims commit…

Discusses the canon-law tradition and the sources of ParsT 565-69 but concludes that "the question of Chaucer's learning on this subject...must remain unanswered."