Browse Items (16376 total)

Shows how MLT and ClT "prove Chaucer's functional use of rhetoric for purposes of decorum," considering the characterizations of the narrators', their uses of rhetoric, and their intentions. Considers source materials, comments on the Wife of Bath,…

A critical edition of the "Plowman's Tale," with notes, glossary, and extensive critical commentary, including discussion of it as an example of Chaucerian apocrypha. Also includes discussion of its relation to "Piers Plowman," the "Pilgrim's Tale,"…

Explores the sources and meanings of Chaucer's "analogies" between animals and humans, focusing on hares, dogs, horses, wolves, and sheep, arguing that, generally, Chaucer uses them to indicate the need for humans to control their "natural passions."

Describes the hierarchical, mystical, Italianate view of love that emphasizes the gentle heart, epitomized in Dante, exploring its influence on Chaucer in TC, comparing and contrasting Chaucer's lovers with Paolo and Francesca as well as Dante and…

Traces the "shapeshifting motif" in English literature from "Beowulf" to the late-medieval metrical romances, focusing on the latter. Chapter five includes attention to WBT as an example of the "human-to-human type of shapeshift," along with seven…

Assesses Chaucer's uses of various kinds of similes and similetic comparisons--Homeric, epic similes; biblical "similitudes"; proverbial comparisons, Ovidian and Dantean comparisons; and more--demonstrating his variety, borrowings, and adaptations.…

Comments on Senecan material in several of the CT (MkT; ManT, WBP, and Mel) and on Chaucer’s access to Senecan sources.

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Assesses the characterization of Criseyde in TC in light of the adjectives she uses and those used of her by the narrator, Troilus, and Pandarus, helping to characterize them as well. Includes comparable data from Boccaccio's "Filostrato."

Offers "close analysis of the use of 'sententiae' and narrative 'exempla'," exploring NPT, WBT, PardT, SumT, and ParsT in light of "traditional and late medieval sermon theory and practice" evident in the "artes praedicandi" and in medieval…

Separates medieval ideas of love (primarily Ovidian and Augustianian) from Romantic and post-Romantic ideas, and argues that Chaucer "was unquestionably a man of his time--an orthodox member of the Church and a firm follower of the teachings of St.…

Item not seen. Kendall's abstract indicates that the "vision poetry" of both Chaucer and Sir John Clanvowe share "discursive territory" with Gower's "Confessio Amantis," particularly "concepts of the late fourteenth-century aristocratic household and…

Explores aspects of Williams' development of his poetic identity, including the importance of Chaucer as a model, emphasizing the modern poet's knowledge of Chaucer and Chaucer criticism and his emulation in "Paterson" of Chaucer's comic techniques.

Clarifies the interdependence of romantic love and the ascent of the mind to God in medieval theology, philosophy, and Chaucer's works, especially HF, PF, LGW, and portions of CT. Argues that many of Chaucer's characters "with specious critical…

Contemplates "fantasy, identification, and the imagination itself" as response modes in the process of reading, exploring their "distinctive epistemological implications and significance for identity." Includes comments on works by Chaucer…

Correlates the "twenty-four 'Canterbury Tales'" with the twelve signs of the zodiac, observing two binary oppositions of the zodiacal signs in the "main characters" of each tale as they "symbolize parts of the body in the "astrological medical…

"This thesis examines the poetics and politics of ‘olde bokes’ (Legend of Good Women, G, 25) in selected works by Chaucer and Gower, paying particular attention to the way in which both writers appropriate their sources and the theories of…

Explores "the historiographic importance of Troy . . . in the formation of an English literary tradition as defined by the idea of authorship and negotiated through genre . . . . particularly epic, romance and history." Studies the sources and…

Shows how three "theoretical concerns are fundamental to Chaucer's art": "the nature of translation, the construction of textual memory, and the relationship between reading and ethics." Explores how in his dream visions, Chaucer "experiments with…

Focuses on the use of vernacular English, specialized vocabulary, rural protagonist, and addresses to reader in "Piers Plowman" that work to engage a "national audience." Includes attention to "Mankind," Gower's "Vox Clamantis," and several works by…

Studies "the bibliographic sensibility that characterized late medieval English manuscript culture," analyzing "the dialectical interaction between literary representation and its material support in a selection of late Middle English poems."…

Considers representations of the power of Medea's magic and Helen's sexuality in works by male writers in medieval and early modern literature, clarifying their classical and early-medieval antecedents and assessing their powers in light of…

Explores "what constitutes 'life' in hagiographical literature" and medieval life-writing in general, focusing on "philosophical and organic categories of life" rather than "political, social, and ecclesiastic content." Assesses Walter Daniel's "Life…

Chaucer in the Platonic tradition of "philosophical poetry" where "poetry is a self-reflexive epistemological practice that interrogates the conditions of art in general." Includes chapters on the Pardoner's Old Man as a neo-Platonic Tithonus figure;…