Argues that in LGWP Chaucer derives his tone from Jean de Meun's self-conscious narratation in the "Roman de la Rose," as well as many "particularities . . . of himself as love and writer." Chaucer's narrator is a caricature of Jean's Amant, an…
Compares Bo with Jean de Meun's and other versions and discusses Chaucer's translation technique and style. Scholars need more information on Chaucer's use of Jean de Meun and on medieval French translations of "De consolatione philosophae."
The levels of style of the first three Canterbury tales correspond to John of Garland's columnar figure, which is itself a memory locus derived from classical rhetoric.
Explicates Chaucer's reference to John of Legnano ("Lynyan" at ClT 4.34), clarifying the international reputation of the canon lawyer and his role in justifying the papal schism, suggesting how Chaucer may have learned of him during his 1378 mission…
A comparison, not a source study, which discovers parallel attitudes toward style, character, and tradition, especially on the role of humor in "Ulysess" and CT.
Economou, George D.
Robert M. Stein and Sandra Pierson Prior, eds. Reading Medieval Culture: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Hanning (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), pp. 290-301.
Economou considers a range of possibilities--that Chaucer and Langland knew each other, knew each other's works, or shared the same literary context. Focuses on GP and Ret of CT.
Lassahn, Nicole.
Essays in Medieval Studies 17: 49-64, 2001.
Compares Chaucer's use of history in BD with that of Langland in "Piers Plowman," suggesting that focus on contemporary events is common to the poets and perhaps indicative of their common audience. Such commonalities and the habits of mind they…
Davlin, Mary Clemente, O.P.
Kathleen M. Hewett-Smith, ed. William Langland's Piers Plowman: A Book of Essays (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 119-41.
Chaucer and Langland are both "great religious writers," although Langland is more deeply engaged in "who and what God is." Both writers are poets of religious experience: Chaucer explores pathos, and Langland confronts the "central beliefs of…
Bowers, John M.
Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press , 2007.
Chaucer's preeminence over Langland is an effect of historical and social forces and must be revised, because tradition is a conflicted notion that helps construct understanding of past, present, and future. Chaucer was a medium of this process, "the…
Myles, Robert., and David Williams, eds.
Montreal and Kingston : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.
Ten essays that pertain to Chaucer, plus a commemorative preface (by M. I. Cameron), an introduction (by David Williams) that summarizes the essays, a bibliography of Wurtele's publications, and a subject index. For individual essays that pertain to…
Horobin, Simon.
Literature Compass 8 (2011): 258-65.
"Reviews work on Chaucer's language and its importance for the development of English literary language." Also suggests directions for future language studies.
Wass, Rosemary Thérèse Ann.
DAI 35.08 (1974): 5124A.
Counters "Robertsonian" or exegetical criticism of Chaucer's works, particularly its neglect of "later scholastic philosophy," focusing on views of individuality and experience found in writers such as Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.…
Clogan, Paul (M.)
Medievalia et Humanistica 9 (1979): 163-74.
Like most of the early nineteenth-century critics, Leigh Hunt strove to bring about a popular revival of Chaucer. But more important, he was among the first to attempt a technical analysis of Chaucer's poetry and to link his poetry with the idea of…
A detailed, tabulated comparison of tree-lists in Chaucer (Rom 1379-86, PF 176-82, KnT 2063-65) with those in his sources shows Chaucer becoming more familiar with a technical vocabulary, and more willing to adapt and augment his immediate sources…
Panzarella, Patrick Joseph.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1977): 1375A.
Chaucer does not attempt to work within the framework of such established literary forms as romance and fabliau. The flaws in the genre approach become evident when the tales are judged from the broader perspective of medieval rhetoric and poetic.
Sugito, Hisashi.
Research Bulletin: Liberal Arts (Nihon University College of Economics) 84 (2017): 73-81.
Points out that Chaucer develops the idea of interpretation through his works (especially CT), and demonstrates how Lydgate's "The Siege of Thebes," drawing on Chaucer, revolves around the ideas of truth and interpretation.
Spolsky, Ellen.
Hebrew University Studies in Literature and the Arts 16 (1988): 51-67.
Argues that for most Chaucerian scholars historical criticism,which necessarily recognizes generic and cultural differences between our own time and the Middle Ages, is outweighed by aesthetic criticism, which is viewer-centered and oriented toward…
McCormack, Frances M.
Helen Phillips, ed. Chaucer and Religion (Cambridge: Brewer, 2010), pp. 35-40.
Explores Chaucer's "employment of Lollard ideas and motifs" in the CT, particularly in ParsPT and WBP, and in the G version of the LGWP. Argues that Chaucer's rhetoric and portrayal of Lollardy reflects how he wants readers to understand the…
Pearsall, Derek.
Ruth Morse and Barry Windeatt, eds. Chaucer Traditions: Studies in Honour of Derek Brewer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 39-53.
Chaucer gave Lydgate his language, his verse forms, and his poetic style--with the urge to refine and elaborate them into a high medieval art. Lydgate's career is arguably a determined effort to emulate and surpass Chaucer in each of the major…
Stein, Gabriele.
Braj B. Kachru and Henry Kahane, eds. Cultures, Ideologies, and the Dictionary: Studies in Honor of Ladislav Zgusta (Tubingen: Niemeyer, 1995), pp. 127-39.
Examines citations of Chaucer and Lydgate in John Palsgrave's "Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse" (1530) as indications of the dictionary-maker's efforts to record "special language use," i.e., dialectical use and varying registers.
Explores Chaucer's and Lydgate's assumptions about their audience's knowledge of history, and discusses how and to what extent it may indicate irony in KnT, MkT, TC, and several works by Lydgate.
Jember, Gregory K.
Takashi Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Mukai, eds. Arthurian and Other Studies Presented to Sunichi Noguchi. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993), pp. 131-42.
Explores CYT and sections of Malory's "Morte d'Arthur" as works that foreshadow the Renaissance, attempting "to contain and understand the irrational and the numinous."
