Browse Items (15417 total)

Eleven essays on Old and Middle English language and literature. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Comoun Peplis Language under Alternative Title.

Uses media and communication theory to explore relations between modernity and the rise of the newspaper as a medium in Germany. Includes in Chapter III.3 an excursus ("Excurs") on fame and rumor in HF, observing in Chaucer's depiction of them a…

Describes several layers of allegorical meaning in NPT, explaining them in an ascending scheme of specific to general, content to form; suggests that Chaucer artfully combines the incommensurable to maintain both jest and earnest.

In "ABC of Reading" Pound praises Chaucer above Shakespeare and Dante, and in his "Cantos" he makes important use of Chaucer's works, the short poems especially. Chaucer provides a setting-off point for understanding Pound's ideas about poetry and…

Book IV divides into five sections, as does section 5 (the parting scene)--Chaucer being influenced by Boethius even in matters of structure. The whole poem has "dramatic" qualities, but in Book IV the drama is of non-action.

Focuses on early scholarship and translations of Chaucer in China connected with the "New Culture Movement," which worked to effect "social modernization" by "importing western literary forms and subjects." Emphasizes how Zuoren’s translation of WPT,…

Assesses the arena and attendant temples in KnT as a squared circle, central symbol in the tale and its concerns with perception and reality.

In MkT,Zenobia is punished for transgressing her gender; and symbols of her former power (including the vitremyte, here newly interpreted) become burlesque attributes.

Considers the exchange of objects in the Zenobia/Cenobia story in MkT not as a punitive measure for pushing back on gender constructs or a validation of the Monk's blatant misogyny, but rather as a moment of empowerment.

Gillmeister explains "vitremite" as a combination of "uistre" (oyster) and "ermite" (hermit), a Chaucerian coinage for a kind of headwear the poet may have associated with monasteries.

Dealing with "gender difference, injunctions on sexual pleasure, and domestic role," Wayne offers a feminist analysis of Zenobia, used as an exemplum by many writers, including Chaucer in MkT.

Lindeboom discusses how Zenobia in MkT helps to characterize the Monk and his spiritual condition. In Dutch.

Studies the uses of allegory in western literature--classical, continental, and English, from Prudentius to George Herbert--with emphasis on growth and variety in the tradition, signals to allegory in the texts, and embedded uses of allegory as well…

Website of eclectic user-generated audio-visual materials, with internal search engine. A search for "Chaucer" produces thousands of results, including links to lectures on the poet's life, language, works, and historical contexts, as well as student…

Banks gauges the place of Astr in the development of English scientific prose, tabulating grammatical metaphors, verbal nouns (ending with -ing), passive voice, personal pronouns, and instructional syntax (an infinitive clause followed by an…

Considered in the light of writings by thirteenth-century ophthalmologist Benvenutus Grassus, January's blindness in MerT is no sudden infirmity. With his admitted habit of "overindulgence" in women, food, and drink, January has been working on…

Discusses unity in PrP, PrT, and the GP description of the Prioress, focusing on their liturgical references and allusions: the canonical hours, the Prioress's "service dyvyne" (1.122), and the plea for aid from Hugh of Lincoln at the end of the tale…

Announces a forthcoming board game, "The Road to Canterbury" (Gryphon Games), created by Alf Seegert. The game focuses on the Pardoner, who is traveling with "seven of Chaucer's pilgrims, each of whom is afflicted with one of the seven deadly sins."

Includes a section entitled " Das Pronomen bei Chaucer" (pp. 74-86) that examines Chaucer's artistic uses of the second person pronouns of address, focusing particularly on TC and including comments on WBPT.

Just as the theme of memory pervades HF, so Chaucer's recounting of the "Aeneid" in book 1 begins with both detail and accuracy and ends in hasty paraphrase. Chaucer's lines 143-48 translate the opening sentence of the "Aeneid" accurately, save for…

Ret is a mature expression of a poet in command of his faculties and intent. The Canon's Yeoman's disillusionment in CYT provides preparation for Ret, while ParsT prepares for the abandonment of sin. Structure and design of CYT and ParsT validate…

In striving to contextualize the portrait of the Yeoman in relation to real-world late medieval weaponry and hunting gear, critics overlook both the Yeoman's service as the "bearer" of aristocratic masculinity and the portrait's phallic humor. In…

Describes the "the provenance, codicology, sources, and performance possibilities" of the early modern Welsh play "Troelus a Chresyd," exploring its relations with TC, Robert Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid," and Renaissance dramatic versions of…

Examines how women are presented in medieval satire as gossips, scolds, and cursing witches, all manifestations of women with orality. Assesses works by Chaucer, Dunbar, and Kempe and material from cycle plays.

Reads the opening of GP (lines 1–18) as a periodic sentence that "builds to a main clause near its end," describes its thematic concern with rebirth and regeneration, and explores the possibility of regarding weather as character or as a metaphor in…