Wurtele, Douglas (J.)
Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 47 (1977): 478-87.
Ironic references to Solomon, who is typologically identified with Christ, as well as to the "Song of Solomon," makes January something of an anti-Christ figure, just as May is a blasphemous counterpart of Mary, and January's garden a degraded…
Describes backgrounds, and analyzes depictions of and references to Minerva in late medieval British literature, exploring her as “"redemptress, mistress of the liberal arts, patroness of princes, idol, and Venus' ally," and arguing that writers of…
Feimer, Joel Nicholas.
Dissertation Abstracts International 44 (1984): 3057A.
After a wide variety of classical treatments, Medea was transformed through the medieval concept of "fin' amor." Although her earthly passion is negatively contrasted with divine love in some works, she is canonized as a saint of love in LGW and in…
Chapter 2, "Civilization and Its Ambivalence," explores how Chaucer's rendering of Cressida has set the stage for all subsequent British and American portrayals of her.
Clogan, Paul (M.)
Medievalia et Humanistica 3 (1972): 213-40.
Surveys criticism of SNPT, describes the genre of hagiography, and summarizes the popularity of the St. Cecilia legend. Then argues that SNP heralds SNT in "theme, pattern, and imagery," effectively functioning "to focus and epitomize" its "figural…
Vila de la Cruz, (Maria) Purificacion.
Purificacion Fernandez Nistal and Jose Ma Bravo Gazalo, eds. Proceedings of the VIth International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 1995), pp. 385-91
Explores different aspects of the love felt by Criseyde in light of the emotions expressed in BD. As a pragmatist, Criseyde thinks she will not suffer love's pains. Her feelings lack heroic grandeur.
Godfrey, Mary F.
Thomas A. Prendergast and Barbara Kline, eds. Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority, and the Idea of the Authentic Text, 1400-1602 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1999), pp. 93-115.
PrT is anthologized apart from CT in three fifteenth-century manuscripts (Harley 1704, 2251, and 2382) that indicate that the Jews of the Tale were mere "stock villains of Marian legends." The manuscripts (variants and glosses) provide no evidence…
Exploring details and multilingual and multidialectical puns and etymologies through a "Proustian lens," Surber discovers sustained attention to homosexuality in CT. Critical uncertainty about specific meaning in Chaucer enables a queer reading that…
Gasse, Rosanne.
E. L. Risden, ed. "Sir Gawain" and the Classical Tradition: Essays on the Ancient Antecedents (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006), pp. 121-34.
Gasse reads references to Achilles in TC as indications that the story of Achilles "is clearly the mirror of Troilus's narrative." References to Achilles in Gower's "Confessio Amantis" and in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" can help readers…
The questioning of the fiend by the Summoner in FrT echoes "Purgatorio" 25. Both humans (Dante and the summoner) ask material questions of their supernatural guides; both guides direct the questions to the realm of the spiritual. The place of both…
Offers a theoretical model for representing language—both oral and literary—and analyzes various modes of discourse such as direct discourse, free indirect discourse, dual voicing, etc. Observes at one point (p. 369) that "Chaucer's free indirect…
With the Host as a master of revels who cannot coerce the lower orders, CT develops wide audience appeal through the pilgrims as players in a medieval festival atmosphere, where both "gentils" and "churls" participate, often with role reversals and…
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle.
Sheila Fisher and Janet E. Halley, eds. Seeking the Woman in Late Medieval and Renaissance Writings, (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989), pp. 51-70.
LGW is a "poem for and about men and their anxieties about sex and gender." Courtly love is incompatible with the patriarchal drive to dominate. The subject of LGW is "male homosocial desire."
Sinnreich-Levi, Deborah M.
Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi, ed. Eustache Deschamps, French Courtier-Poet: His Work and His World. (New York: AMS Press, 1998), pp. 123-30.
The misogynist female voices in a number of Deschamps's poems seem to share common sources with WBPT and MerT.
Ames, Ruth M.
Julian N. Wasserman and Robert J. Blanch, eds. Chaucer in the Eighties (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1986), pp. 57-74.
Chaucer responds to the God of Love's charges against TC and the translation of Rom by avoiding confrontation. This response is not noncommittal but carries the message that one should be evenhanded, not extremist, when dealing with feminism.
Brooks, Freya Elizabeth Paintin.
Open access Ph.D. dissertation. University of Leicester, 2018. Available at EThOS: E-Theses Online Service (registration required). Accessed February 5, 2021.
"[R]evisits" the manuscripts of CT "in order to piece together the evidence of women's involvement in the consumption and circulation of this work," using "visualisations to map the social networks of women connected to the manuscripts and explore…
Focuses on the theological and comical elements of CT and its "beatific vision." Claims that Chaucer "provides a lyrical vision of the possibilities of poetry and pilgrimage" in GP.
By subtle allusions and a skillful balance of opposites, Chaucer reveals that the Wife of Bath conspired with Jankyn to kill her fourth husband, caused Jankyn's death by betraying him to her friends, and became a garish, cynical old woman incapable…
Frakes, J. C.
Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill, 1988.
Examines Fortune in the Roman tradition, in Boethius, in Latin commentaries on the "Consolatione," in King Alfred's adaptation, and in Notker's exegesis.
A survey of fantasy literature in England, arranged topically in six categories: secondary world, metaphysical, emotive, comic, subversive, and children's. Includes commentary on various works by Chaucer in an opening chapter called "The Origins of…
Butterfield, Ardis.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Explores the political, linguistic, and cultural relations between "France" and "England" before the stabilization of the areas' geographical boundaries. Interdependence between the two areas challenges modern notions of nationality, linguistic…
