Browse Items (15542 total)

Explores Chaucer's use of romance conventions of the forest and the hunt. BD offers a particularly "artificial forest," reflecting the artifice of the work. In FrT, the forest is a kind of hell; in TC, the place of greatest freedom. WBT overturns…

Surveys Chaucer's works and their reception, emphasizing his innovation and experimentation. Introduced by a brief section on Chaucer's reading, discussions of each of his major works summarize the sources Chaucer used and his adaptations of them.

Reprints fourteen essays originally published in the 1980s and 1990s, all pertaining to CT and characterized by their contemporary theoretical approaches. In the introduction, the editors survey critical approaches to Chaucer and provide suggestions…

Despite his bookishness, Chaucer is an oral poet, trained in medieval rhetorical tradition, which is rooted in oratory, and successful in his efforts to render oral narratives in literature.

An anthology of reprinted critical discussions divided into four sections: Chaucer's reading and readership (3 essays or excerpts), dream poetry (7 essays or excerpts), TC (5 essays or excerpts), and CT (10 essays or excerpts). Saunders prefaces each…

A biography of Chaucer that records his career as a courtier and diplomat and explores how it may have affected his personality and shaped his poetry. Designed for a general audience, with translations of quoted material, suggestions for further…

Spanish translation of G. K. Chesterton's biography of Chaucer and his times.

Comments generally on Chaucer's scientific knowledge, explains his use and understanding of "Aristotelian cosmology," and describes the astronomical and astrological systems that underlie the details and structures of many of his works. Assumes that…

Defines pragmaphilology as a field of study, explains why Chaucer is an important focus for study in the field, surveys the pragmaphilological work that has been done concerning Chaucer, and makes suggestions for future directions. Much of the work…

Pedagogical website that focuses on CT but includes internal links to descriptions of Chaucer's other works and to background information. Individual webpages provide descriptions of the Tales that comment on themes and critical issues, accompanied…

Discursive bibliography of Chaucer studies, including subsections on texts, critical studies and commentary, biographies, bibliographies, and background reading.

Argues that Chaucer's sensory detail in his GP descriptions "rings a bell in our mind": we recognize these descriptions as modern for their emphasis on individuation rather than typicality. Attributes this technique to the rise of late-medieval…

Introduces Chaucer and his works, with focus on CT, and provides commentary on context, themes, and critical approaches. The guide is aimed at high school students or students early in college.

Thirty-six essays on individual topics, plus an introduction (by Ellis) and a postscript (Julian Wasserman). Part 1 (historical contexts): Chaucer's life (Ruth Evans), society and politics (S. H. Rigby), nationhood (Ardis Butterfield), London (C.…

Compares and contrasts BD with French sources and analogues and emphasizes the degree to which BD "foreshadows" elements in Chaucer's later works, especially in its reliance on implicit meanings and narrative distance.

French poetic translation of the complete The Canterbury Tales that maintains approximate pentameter but eschews rhyme. In the introduction (pp. 5-19), Crépin argues that Chaucer uses a Socratic method in his deliberate contradictions and that he…

Surveys the hard-word tradition of lexicography in Chaucer and Shakespeare studies, particularly in editions of their works, and suggests that new works are still needed to serve twenty-first-century users.

Focuses on how Chaucer was perceived in Scotland in the fifteenth century, and how deliberate misattributions of Chaucer's writings created a "vehicle for 'Scottish' culture, identity, and nationalism."

Edits Caxton's earliest Chaucer publications, except for the first printing of CT, including PF (aka "The Temple of Brass"), Henry Scogan's "Treatise" that includes Chaucer's Gent, the lyric "Wyth empty honde" that Chaucer alludes to in WBP (3.415)…

Using postcolonial theory, events of the 100 Years' War, and speculations about Chaucer's war experiences, Bowers analyzes Chaucer's literary productions--from his early translations from French through LGW--as a reaction against French literary…

Reads CT as a "decolonizing project" and a "narrative of nationhood" whereby Chaucer resisted Richard II's renewed attachment to French culture and took steps to invent English society. Assesses how several issues in CT reflect English postcolonial…

Jones considers language and its ability to represent reality in Th-MelL, arguing that unlike post-structuralist thinkers (such as Richard Rorty), Chaucer retains the "traditional distinction between history and fiction" even while cognizant of their…

Identifies previously unrecorded allusions to Chaucer, most of them reflecting his "reputation as a religious leader and reformer," some based on works attributed to him falsely.

Unnoted allusions to Chaucer (and pseudo-Chaucer) in thirteen sixteenth-century works.

Concerned with textual ambiguity and flexibility in oral performance, Bowden compares varying interpretations of passages from CT. Pedagogical interpretative slant.