Browse Items (16536 total)

Traces the "forms of amorous lyric complaints" from antiquity to the European mid fourteenth century, and then assesses Chaucer's "use of the 'complaint d'amour' both as independent lyrics" and as "interpolated poems" in longer works, focusing on…

An introduction to "those aspects of Chaucer studies which involve manuscripts and incunabula," designed for classroom use, including discussion of binding, manuscript production and materials, decoration and illumination, paleography, book trade and…

Chaucer develops original significances for birds, especially in HF, NPT, and PF. Birds variously represent the bestial in humanity, models for human society, objects of ridicule, and mediators between God and man. All four can be seen in the…

Describes the general influence of European literature on Chaucer's works. In Japanese.

Argues that medieval Latin satiric writers such as Nigel of Longchamps and Walter of Châtillon contributed to the "essential nature" of Chaucer's "poetic imagination." In WBP, NPT, and elsewhere, Chaucer capitalizes on the satiric potential…

Part 1 traces the influences of Bernard Silvestris and Alan of Lille on Chaucer's works, focusing on themes of fatalism (in MLT), cosmic ascent (in HF) and hierarchy and nature (in PF). Regards Alan's influence as "profound," especially in PF, and…

Clarifies the typicality of Chaucer's Miller by identifying characteristics that "were commonly ascribed to millers in late-medieval literature." Like analogous miller's, he is "is red-haired, coarse-featured, socially ambitious, muscular,…

Studies the "form in which Chaucer may have known Statius' poetry," focusing on "medieval glossed manuscripts" in order to identify correspondences between the poetry of Statius, commentaries on it, and Chaucer's works. Assesses the status of Statius…

Social history of late-medieval England, designed for adolescents, including discussion of Chaucer as "royal servant," poet, and "father of the English language" (pp. 1-9). Recurrent mention of Chaucer in subsequent discussions of historical topics.…

All major poets of the fifteenth century in England and Scotland considered themselves disciples of Chaucer. The extent to which they actually emulated Chaucer in their works, however, is questionable. Additional studies involving the Chaucer…

Scottish Chaucerians emphasize the different aspects of Chaucer's work--love fiction: "The Kingis Quair;" retribution: Henryson's "Testament of Cresseid;" and diction: Dunbar's "Thrissill and the Rose."

Modern readers must resist the limitations of twentieth-century literary-critical approach and interpret Chaucer in the traditional critical context: studies of manuscript tradition, text, and lexical context.

Chaucer is assumed to have had a high level of astronomical knowledge, unusual for medieval times. Olson and Jasinski used an Apple IIe microcomputer to investigate certain celestial constellations and to prove that Chaucer was correct in his…

Describes the limited presence of Chaucer in the early American films, commenting on a Motion Picture Academy educational promotion and a "distorted" version of PardT, "On Borrowed Time" (1939). Offers five reasons for this scarcity:…

Discusses poet-narrator ambiguity in four TC prologues and the Epilogue and in the narrator's guise as historian. The narrator is detached and didactic but also compassionate and helpless.

Traces in biblical, classical, and political sources the development of the idea that the Pope and other rulers gain sovereignty through "mystical marriage" to their respective institutions, arguing that WBT "bears a striking similarity to [this]…

Similarities between Chaucer and the Middle English mystics do not imply a conscious intention on his part either to imitate the mystics or to parody them ironically.

There is a tradition which views the knight's pursuit of love as an inversion of responsibility to God and to society. In CT, the Knight embodies spiritual and social duty whereas the Squire represents a subversion of proper knightly functions.

The warm acclaim the Victorians gave to Chaucer reflects the nineteenth century's anxious and conflicted responses to rapid urbanization.

Chaucer represents popular discourse as analogous to social, historical, and even apocalyptic disruption. He thus variously attempts to contain and to release its power: In TC, disruption can be temporarily contained by heroic action; in KnT, it…

As a nominalist, Ockham is aware of the limitation of human perception and the weakness of language to convey ideas without distortion. In a different way, Chaucer, too, is concerned with these problems, though as a poet he tends to emphasize (not…

Revives the idea that Chaucer visited Ireland between 1361 and 1366, placing new emphasis on the date of the Statute of Kilkenny. Identifies sources for Chaucer's works in Irish and Norse literatures. Observes parallels for HF in the "Topographia…

Examines the origins of the "nouvelle: in "news" and Chaucer's interest in tydynges.

Surveys rhetorical approaches to Chaucer and documents the "renaissance in rhetoric" in late fourteenth-century England by surveying manuscripts that contain rhetorical treatises. The impact of this renaissance is evident in Chaucer's poetry: while…

Pagan gods represent planetary influences, alchemic symbolism,psychological allegory of emotional states, and historical examples of virtues or vices. They also dramatize the worldliness of Chaucer's characters and relate it to the condition of…