Browse Items (16339 total)

Traces the development of characterization in representative works of English literature from the Middle Ages to Joyce and Lawrence, emphasizing the change from universalized figures to individual psychology. Includes a chapter entitled "Women by…

The romances of Chretien and Chaucer introduced the psychologically self-conscious character into medieval literature. KnT and TC make a distinction between the socially defined male, and the psychologically individualized female.

The Miller's narrative manner is adapted to the level of discourse expected of his social status. The disorganized syntax suggests a disorganized world view.

Through the virtue of hope and a sense of penance, Troilus's courtly love and death in TC parallel divine love and salvation, showing the influences of Dante's "Commedia" and Boethius's "De consolatio philosophiae."

Chaucer's characterization is sophisticated. The monk, merchant, and wife are complex personalities rather than flat stereotypes. The merchant is not duped or punished because of character flaws; he has none. The tale emphasizes the success of the…

Praises the "high organic unity" of MilT, attributing it to effective characterization of the major actors: "by making him 'hende' in one sense or another, Chaucer has motivated each incident of the plot involving Nicholas; and similarly, he has…

Chaucer is consistent in keeping an unsympathetic attitude to abnormal love and boldly cuts off the "revenge" part of the story of Tereus and Procne.

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…

Argues that the female protagonists of LGW are heroic in their combinations of strength and suffering, and, "adapting a notion of charisma from Joseph Roach," characterizes their heroism as "charismatic.""The "extraordinary virtues and qualities" of…

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…

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…

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…

Concerns Chaucer's authorship of Astr, and "what that instrument contributes to Chaucer's idea of travel.

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 with…

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…

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,…

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,…

Introductory essays on Chaucer's life, the minor poems and the prose, TC, and CT.

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…

Summarizes the last twenty years' scholarship on Bo, Mel, ParsT, and Astr, with bibliography and desiderata.

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.

Emphasis on Chaucer's use of symbols.

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…