Cox, Catherine S.
South Atlantic Review 61 (1996): 1-21.
As a character "capable of saying one thing but meaning quite another," the Manciple ridicules the "wisdom of the mother" at the end of ManT. The crow suffers for the "feminine behavior" of talking too much, and the Manciple talks "as if a woman" to…
Ruggiers, Paul G.
Beryl Rowland., ed. Companion to Chaucer Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 160-84.
Chaucer made at least two authenticated journeys to Italy whereby he gained a knowledge of the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Curiously, though he borrowed extensive narrative material from Boccaccio, Chaucer never mentions him by name as…
Argues that Chaucer's similes cannot be explained in terms of imitation of Dante and Boccaccio or direct imitation of classical models. Instead, following the example of Dante and Boccaccio, Chaucer practiced a "poetics of vernacularization,"…
Conroy, Anne Rosemarie.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1977): 253A-54A.
"The Isle of Ladies" was attributed to Chaucer until 1878. It is primarily a lover's complaint to his lady. The characters are based on Chaucerian models (like Criseyde) but play somewhat different roles.
Staley, Lynn.
Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.
Beginning with Gildas' depiction of England as a beautiful garden, explores metaphorical and physical gardens in medieval English cultural history, arguing that Chaucer indicates "awareness of nation as landscape" in CT. Chapters 2 and 3 emphasize…
Lenaghan, R. T.
Chaucer Review 7.4 (1973): 281-94.
Argues that, while clearly discrediting summoners, the Friar "also discredits himself." Reads FrT as a exemplum that satirizes summoners and, ironically, condemns the Friar's malicious hypocrisy, especially clear in light of contemporary sermon…
Allen, Judson Boyce.
Studies in Philology 66 (1969): 25-35.
Uses allegorical interpretations from Hugh of St. Cher to show how the exegetical equation of cock and preacher is consistently upended in the description and actions of Chauntecleer in NPT, offering a mock allegory where "fruit is chaff."
Locates and assesses a prevailing irony in TC: the narrator and each of the major characters follows the "same pattern" of early knowledge of Fortune's instability, "followed by self-deception, and eventual submission to the facts." Love and truth…
Common characters and incidents in PardT and three Irish versions of Aarne-Thompson folktale Type 763 may indicate cross-fertilization between folklore and medieval literature. Most arguments favor an oral source for the PardT. The episode of the…
Meecham-Jones, Simon.
Corinne Saunders, Francoise Le Saux, and Neil Thomas, eds. Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses to Warfare (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004), pp. 147-67.
In TC, Chaucer avoids focusing on war, revealing his awareness of its importance in perpetrating the aristocratic culture of his day, as well as his need to evade the expectations imposed on him as a writer. Conflict and the psychological disjunction…
Nolan, Maura.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 41 (2019): 33-71, A1-A12; 6 b&w illus.
Combines computer-assisted stylometry and close reading to explore Chaucer’s concept of style and his uses of the word "style" itself as they compare with those of John Gower and John Lydgate. Clarifies aspects of stylometric analysis,…
Heng, Geraldine
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Provides a comprehensive view of how "race" is defined in the premodern world and addresses the process of "race-making" within and outside the European context. In particular, discusses how Jews in England were "racialized" and analyzes the "sensory…
Collects excerpts documenting how "the modern study of Middle English became the way it is." Thirteen excerpts discuss language, from George Hickes (1642-1715) to James A. H. Murray (1837-1915), and nineteen consider literary criticism and…
Includes discussion of Rita Copeland's representation of Chaucer as an author intending to supersede previous texts; where Chaucer would supplant classical texts, Langland is presented as attempting to conserve and extend scriptural/liturgical texts.
Historical novel set in London, Kent, Calais, and during a pilgrimage to Durham, 1386; the second in a series that features John Gower as first-person narrator investigating criminal and political events, in this case a mass murder that involves…
Hill, Michelle Queen.
Open access Ph.D. dissertation University of Georgia, 2016.
Available at https://www.libs.uga.edu/.
Accessed February 7, 2021.
Explores how genre conventions and expectations vary between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century and produce different views of history. Includes discussion of BD and KnT for the ways that Chaucer reshapes their conventional genres (dream…
Haman, Mark Stefan.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1982): 4444A.
Certain fourteenth-century works (the York plays, "Confessio Amantis," "Piers Plowman," CYT) function by placing inadequate characters in crisis situations. The audience learns from their limited reactions. Most complex is MerT: the narrator's…
Storm, Melvin.
Studies in Scottish Literature 28 (1993): 105-22.
Chaucer's moral judgment of Troilus may be uncertain, and his judgment of Criseyde is definitely uncertain. Readers have attempted to clarify these judgments by appeals outside the text to law and theology; however, reading Henryson's "Testament" as…
Matsuda, Takami.
Yuichiro Azuma, Kotaro Kawasaki, and Koichi Kano, eds. Chaucer and English and American Literature: Essays Commemorating the Retirement of Professor Masatoshi Kawasaki (Tokyo: Kinseido, 2015), pp. 44–59.
Argues that the medieval notion of wonder helps to explain the Franklin's interruption of SqT.The Squire presents the marvels in his tale as explainable in scientific terms, in accord with the philosophical notion of wonder. The Franklin similarly…
Sheridan explores ways that language is like money in acts of interpretation, examining the role of the Host in CT, readers' valuations of various tales, patronage and interpretive control, and the "mercantile" strategies of May (MerT) and the Wife…
Nakao, Yoshiyuki.
Michiko Ogura, ed. Textual and Contextual Studies in Medieval English: Towards the Reunion of Linguistics and Philology (Frankfurt am Main, 2006), pp. 51-73.
Nakao assesses Criseyde's comment on trusting Pandarus (TC 3.587) as ambiguous, considering "phonological, morphological, lexical/collocational, syntactic and pragmatic" aspects of Chaucer's use of "moste" as an auxiliary and an adverb.
Ganim, John M.
William A. Quinn, ed. Chaucer's Dream Visions and Shorter Poems (New York and London: Garland, 1999), pp. 463-76.
Assesses criticism of Chaucer's dream visions and lyrics for how it has "predicted" the present state of Chaucer scholarship and as a "test case" for various critical approaches. Issues include the subject and subjectivity; resistance to new critical…
