Browse Items (16376 total)

Suggests that Jane Austen may have known WBPT and argues that there are similarities between Chaucer's Wife and Anne Elliot in Austen's "Persuasion," in that both characters "note that male authoritarian writing delimits women's social standing," and…

Includes discussion of WBPT as background to a survey of women as witches in contemporary British literature. Interprets WBP as evidence that, in Chaucer's time, a "woman, in order to claim her independence . . . has to speak of herself in negative…

Appreciates WBP as a representation of autobiographical storytelling. Argues that the Wife of Bath's focus on oral self-expression presents her as a powerful female character standing against the male-dominant literate culture.

Studies "the literary, religious, and legal histories of felony procedure," focusing on literary depictions of felony, including those in ParsT and MLT.

Describes the pedagogical value of teaching MLT alongside modern narratives "that emphasize the ways Custance represents and evokes the displaced and powerless," including students' personal experiences; "Refugee Tales," edited by David Herd; a US…

Argues that the "bond between parent and child in late medieval England was deeply felt and often conflicted as demonstrated by the literature of the period," including MLT.

Edits "Le Bone Florence of Rome," accompanied by a facing-page translation that maintains the twelve-line, tail-rhyme stanzas of the original, with end-of-text explanatory notes, textual notes, and several appendices. Introduction includes commentary…

Challenges the uses and meanings of "vernacular" and "vernacularity" in literary and linguistic studies on the grounds that the terms are historically and intrinsically racist, colonialist, and/or supremacist. Using the "paradigm of metrolingualism,"…

Includes comments on MLT, arguing that it "demonstrates the belief that not everyone can become a true Christian and that true Christianity can only be acquired by the right kind of pagans, such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings," but not Muslims.

Contrasts Chaucer's version of Custance in MLT with that of Gower and Trevet in order to show how Chaucer emphasizes the foreignness of Custance in England and the negative reaction to her, comparing them with documentary instances of xenophobia…

Contrasts medieval Augustinian views of translation with those of modern translation theory and practice, applying the former to the adaptation/translation of CkT found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 686. Argues that the Bodley scribe…

Contends that the beating in RvT alludes to an incident in the life of St. Oswald the Bishop, arguing that the allusion enhances the Reeve's attack on the Miller and creates a sense of irony, as the Reeve suffers in comparison with his priestly…

Examines late medieval British literary texts (lyrics, pastourelles, flytings, "alewife poems," "schoolroom texts," etc.) for their use of obscene language and imagery to shape and convey attitudes toward gender and sexuality, both positive and…

Contends that the confrontation between the carpenter John and the clerk Nicholas in MilT provides dramatic context for the exploration of anti-intellectualism and intellectual curiosity. Claims that in MilT it is the "combination of humor and…

Links the characterizations of Nicholas and John in MilT to the genre fluidity of medieval literature and the interdependence of reading and performance. Focuses on Nicholas's "hyperliterate status," the "theatrical props of his learning implements,"…

Focuses on a study of status in MilT and traces the positioning of Nicholas and Alisoun and their displays of their buttocks in the window toward Absolon. Fleshing out the context and history of bottom-kissing as well as the averting of demons by…

Includes brief comments on MilT as an example of "a carnival-like rejection of hierarchies," aligning it with Alenca Zupančič's theory that "comedy creates what we understand 'human' to be."

Describes how to use Pierre Bourdieu's notion of "habitus" and the modern idea of public relations to help students explore how and to what extent the punishments in MilT are or are not "fair"; students are grouped as PR advocates for each of the…

Argues that like "Guy of Warwick" and "Ywain and Gawain," KnT promotes "ideals of both prowess and lordship," with Chaucer emphasizing the ideals of "chivalric interdependence" and the bonds of "mutual loyalty."

Explores what Chaucer's romances "say about . . . individuality and identity," interpreting spaces, movements, and characters' perception of them in KnT for how they "delimit" behaviors even though these limitations are disrupted by individual…

Argues that various narrative and stylistic devices in KnT evoke the question "Does human life have a final meaning?" The poem begins with an ending and ends with a beginning, these complemented throughout by stoppings and startings and various…

Argues that Middle English romances reflect "medieval awareness of the problems caused by militarization." Includes discussion of KnT where, "for hardened fighting men who have seen years of service in war, combat is always 'real,' and conduct…

Surveys the Greco-Roman mythological material in KnT, suggesting that its presence deepens the tale's themes and broadens its impact.

Treats GP and Langland's Prologue in relation to the traditional model of three estates, arguing that the order of the pilgrims in GP reveals inadequacies in the "trifunctional model" (fight, pray, labor) and alludes to the Fall of Humanity in the…

Builds on Homi K. Bhabha's definition of hybridity and studies the pilgrims as "the hybrids and/or mimics of medieval borderline society." Contextualizes these hybrid identities within economic and social changes, and concentrates on the Knight in…