Browse Items (16035 total)

Russell, Nicholas.   Notes and Queries 211 (1966): 50-52.
Argues that Chaucer's characterization of the lovers in TC is marked by their relationships with public opinion, especially with that of "the impersonal mass of Trojans and Greeks" who are the "anti-characters" of the poem. As fortune turns against…

Culver, Jennifer.   Hortulus 4 (2008): n.p.
Argues that Chaucer's representation of the widow in FrT anticipates the "cursing hag" of Early Modern tradition, especially in responding to the summoner's refusal of her request for charity. The curse and the summoner's refusal to repent help to…

Perry, R. D., and Mary-Jo Arn, eds.   Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020. .
Collects ten essays by various authors and an introduction by Perry, together showing that, in his "Fortunes Stabilnes," Charles d’Orléans was "one of the great formal innovators of English poetry," examining the genres he engaged, his metrical…

Boffey, Julia.   Piero Boitani and Anna Torti, eds. Mediaevalitas: Reading the Middle Ages (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1996), pp. 43-62.
Explores possible influences of Chaucer's dream poems on the works of Charles of Orleans, especially on the dream episodes in the English poems of British Museum MS Harley 682 attributed to Charles. Similarities in pattern and verbal detail may have…

Tobienne, Francis, Jr.   James M. Dean, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer (Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2017), pp. 159-70.
Concerns Chaucer's authorship of Astr, and "what that instrument contributes to Chaucer's idea of travel.

Seal, Samantha Katz.   Studies in the Age of Chaucer 44 (2022): 273–83.
Explores the misogyny that underlies several historical records of, and modern commentaries on, an attempt to seduce Alice Chaucer, Chaucer’s daughter, by Philip, duke of Burgundy. See a response by Rachel E. Moss, "#NotAllMen: In Conversation…

Bowers, John M.   Pacific Coast Philology 30 (1995): 15-26.
Chaucer exposes the Ricardian practice of chaste marriage "for what perhaps it really was: sexual hypocrisy posing as virtuous Christian abstinence." The false romantic passion and comic fusion of the clerkly and courtly in male characters such as…

Stone, Brian.   Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1989.
General critical study treating Chaucer's world, life, language, and pronunciation. Includes critical introductions to GP, KnT, MilT, RvT, CkT, MLT, ShT, PrT, Th,Mel, MkT, NPT, PhyT, PardPT, WBPT, FrT, SumT, ClT, MerT, SqT, FranT, SNT, CYT, ManT,…

Aers, David.   Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press International, 1986.
From the perspective of new historicism, this brief introduction to Chaucer's writing reconstructs his ideological milieu and explores his representations of society in GP, PF, ShT, KnT, ClT, and Mel; of religion in SumT, FrT, PardP, PardT, SNT, PrT,…

Bolton, W. F.,S. S. Hussey, D. S. Brewer, and D. A. Pearsall.   W. F. Bolton, ed. The New History of Literature, Vol. I: The Middle Ages (New York: Peter Bedrick, 1986), pp. 169-266.
Introductory essays on Chaucer's life, the minor poems and the prose, TC, and CT.

Kane, George.   New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
With no notes and a brief index, the book glances at Chaucer's life, times, and work in chronological order. Exploring Chaucer's identity as poet ironically, HF concerns truth in report and poetry. As mirror for princes, PF fuses poetry and…

Lawler, Traugott.   A. S. G. Edwards, ed. Middle English Prose: A Critical Guide to Major Authors and Genres (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1984), pp. 291-313.
Summarizes the last twenty years' scholarship on Bo, Mel, ParsT, and Astr, with bibliography and desiderata.

Ando, Shinsuke.   Eigo Seinen (Tokyo) 128 (1983): 722-23.
Surveys recent Chaucer studies in Japan, introducing literary or philological studies of N. Ueno, M. Masui, K. Miyake, S. Ono, T. Oiji, K. Ogoshi, I. Saito, H. Nojima, and F. Kuriyagawa.

Kleinstuck, Johannes.   Manfred Lurker, ed. Worterbuch der Symbolik.. (Stuttgart: Kroner, 1979)
Emphasis on Chaucer's use of symbols.

Saunders, Corinne J.   Corinne J. Saunders. The Forest of Medieval Romance: Arvernus, Broceliande, Arden. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993), pp. 155-62.
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…

Economou, George D.   Carl Woodring and James Shapiro, eds. The Columbia History of British Poets (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 55-80.
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.

Allen, Valerie, and Ares Axiotis, eds.   New York: St. Martin's, 1996.
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…

Lindahl, Carl.   John Miles Foley, ed. Teaching Oral Traditions. (New York: Modern Language Association, 1998), pp. 359-64.
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.

Saunders, Corinne [J.], ed.   Oxford : Blackwell, 2000.
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…

Ackroyd, Peter.   London : Chatto & Windus, 2004.
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…

Gil Ortega, Maria Auxiliadora, trans.   Madrid : Ediciones Luis Revenga, 2007.
Spanish translation of G. K. Chesterton's biography of Chaucer and his times.

North, J. D.   Noriss S. Hetherington, ed. Cosmology: Historical, Literary, Philosophical, Religious, and Scientific Perspectives (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 217-24.
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…

Pakkala-Weckström, Mari.   Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen, eds. Historical Pragmatics. Handbooks of Pragmatics, no. 8 (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2010), pp. 219-45.
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…

Delahoyde, Michael.   [Pullman]: Washington State University, n.d.
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…

Burrow, J. A.   Dyson, A. E., ed. English Poetry: Select Bibliographical Guides (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 1-14.
Discursive bibliography of Chaucer studies, including subsections on texts, critical studies and commentary, biographies, bibliographies, and background reading.
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