Browse Items (16364 total)

Comments on the "real and alleged obscenity of the farting scene in MilT, focusing on its, narrative technique, humor, and the use of "thonder-dent."

Suggests that interpretations of the Pardoner are overwrought, arguing that he acts "perfectly in the character given him by his creator" and that his somewhat troubling offer of relics to the Host is best understood as a joke.

NPT makes fun of the Monk and the Prioress by combining hunting, rough handling of animals, sexual indulgence, and two morals. The "treading," the hunting, the near sacrifice and downfall, the injunction against flattery, touch upon the…

Sexual frustration during Arveragus's absence motivates Dorigen's verbal infidelity. Aurelius, however, can neither accept her from her husband nor pay the magician with whom the squire has lowered himself to deal.

The Pardoner's motivation is understandable if we hear his prologue and tale through the ears of Harry Bailly; the Pardoner's performance is not merely one more ad hominem attack by one of the pilgrims but a questioning of the story-telling rules…

While arousing authorial anxieties, the dream vision permits Chaucer to treat otherwise inaccessible psychological problems. In CT the verbal game repeatedly explores the dangers of violating "pryvetee," privacy.

In WBT, PardT, and NPT, Chaucer exploits many facets of medieval dream and fable lore, including the ambiguous situation of a dream within a fiction and the Augustinian motif of the liar who tells the truth in order to deceive. Shakespeare pushes…

Argues that writers or works or periods can offer alternatives to modern critical theory. O'Brien's view that Chaucer presents union (in particular, love and marriage) as an overarching theme of CT encourages us to see that views other than…

The "fruyt" and "chaf" passage of NPT places the reading of the "Tale" in an ethical context, complemented by Plato's "Gorgias," with "fruyt" and "chaf" representing true and false counsel.

Allusive echoes among the GP description of the Prioress, WBP, and the biblical Proverbs suggest that Chaucer subtly condemns the Prioress for sexual excess.

The Prioress's portrait in GP and NPT both draw from aspects of the Lancelot story. The Prioress partially models her own life on that of Guinevere without the full religious conversion that Guinevere undergoes after the death of Arthur. The Nun's …

Maintains that the silence of the pilgrims at the end of PrT signifies the Prioress's effectiveness in delivering a story of pathos that stuns the audience into silence. Explores how Chaucer uses PrT "to promote cautious, critical analysis" as a…

Focuses on Henry Brooke's 1741 verse adaptation/translation of MLT as a rewriting of English history that asserts "national identity" and "looks fondly at the relationship between the Anglican Church and State, ultimately equating its hopeful…

Explores Alexander Pope's "transformation" of MerT in his "January and May," focusing on his "reading of Chaucer," and his poem's "consonance with the time of Queen Anne." Also comments more generally on Pope's reception and uses of Chaucer's…

Gives phonological evidence to support the identification of "Seint Ronyon" of PardP 6.320 as St. Ninian.

An essay on ecclesiastical patronage of art in the Middle Ages.

Both ClT and Marie de France's "Fresne" examine the themes of patience and obedience. Although the descriptions of Griselda and Fresne are strikingly similar, the style and perspective of the tales differ. In Chaucer's "lavish and masterful" style,…

Summarizes the principles of "alchemical theory," exploring Jungian associations and emphasizing Christian interpretations in medieval and early modern commentaries. Focusing on imagery of CYP, suggests that the canon is associated with the…

Comments on three "distancing-involving" devices in BD--the narrative pose, structural arrangement, and the "self-reflexive consideration of the poem's poetics." Include a brief Jungian analysis of the dream.

Implications of clear-sighted love in the Middle Ages lead one to view Cupid in Chaucer's LGW as a symbol of marital, generative love. But because this Cupid is indiscriminate in love (being in favor of it, without regard to circumstances), it is…

Since the speech acts of Alison consist of arguing, insisting,challenging, and confiding, the message is that she is always struggling against the givens of her world. She is Lady Philosophy "manque" since her views of behavior are hardly proper and…

Explores relations among voice, genre, music, orality, and memorial transmission in "Lay le Freine," "Sir Orfeo," and FranT, including assessment of the ambiguities and Bahktinian polyphony of voices in the GP description of the Franklin's oral…

Zeitoun studies dreams and daydreams in TC, especially daydreaming in Book 1, Criseyde's dream of the eagle, and Troilus's dream of the boar. Violence in the poem has less to do with war than with the internal states of the characters; these states…

Two translations of Chaucerian works into Turkish--GP (1993), by Barçin Erol, and CT (1994), by Nazim Ağil--illustrate the "cultural approximation necessitated by the act of translation." Reis assesses specific passages from these translations,…

Assesses "maternal authority" in literary works from Augustine's "Confessions" to Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," including a chapter entitled "Maternal Abandonment, Maternal Deprivation: Tales of Griselda in Boccaccio, Petrarch, Chaucer, and…