King, Andrew, and Matthew Woodcock, eds.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2016.
Presents a collection of essays that respond to and commemorate Helen Cooper's "contribution to the study of medieval and Renaissance literature, literary history and periodisation." For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search for Medieval into…
Reviews canon, allusion, and literary influence in English literature. Refers to Chaucer as the head of the English canon, discusses Matthew Arnold's thoughts on Chaucer, and reveals limited attention to Chaucer in the 1909 "Harvard Classics"…
Espie, Jeffrey George.
Dissertation Abstracts International A78.08 (2016): n.p.
Considers Spenser's perception of Chaucer as inspiration, influence, and creator whose creations have themselves been mediated by other writers and society.
Claims that Chaucer, Spenser, and Dryden may be understood as a collective devoted to the project of "reviving or supplementing destroyed, deferred, and unfulfilled stories." Demonstrates the recursive, rather than linear, relations among these…
Examines the apocalyptic genre of English short-verse prophecies, which were attributed to authorities such as Merlin, Bede, and Chaucer, who existed safely in the past but often also on the margins of political and religious orthodoxy. Popular from…
Doyle, Kara.
Seeta Chaganti, ed. Medieval Poetics and Social Practice: Responding to the Work of Penn R. Szittya (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012), pp. 124-42.
Reads the figure of Alceste in LGW as a "fable" of female patronage, and argues that texts such as John Metham's "Amoryus and Cleopes" and an anonymous English translation of a portion of Boccaccio's "De Mulieribus Claris" do not follow Chaucer's (or…
Reviews seventeenth-century lexicographical interest in Scots dialect, and includes information about the extent to which Junius used Gavin Douglas's "Eneados" to understand Chaucer's vocabulary.
Breeze, Andrew.
Housman Society Journal 38 (2012): 89-135.
Explores the sources of several details and attitudes in poems by A. E. Housman, including discussion of the impact of KnT and TC on "A Shropshire Lad," particularly their depictions of love sickness ("amor heroes") and the ennobling effects of…
Alludes to Chaucer in the title of an essay about the poet Barrie Phillip Nichol, "On First Opening Nichol's Chaucer," and briefly characterizes CT as "a long poem that incorporates," playing on the meaning of "corpus" as "body."
Barrington, Candace
Gail Ashton and Daniel T. Kline, eds. Medieval Afterlives in Popular Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp. 13-28.
Asserts that PrT "depends upon, and perpetrates, the worst stereotypes of Jews," and assesses thirty-two YouTube dramatizations and adaptations of the tale (posted 2006–11) as evidence of its contemporary reception among high school audiences,…
Ashton, Gail, and Daniel T. Kline, eds.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Collection of essays exploring how medievalisms and medieval elements are reclaimed and reconceptualized in contemporary print and digital texts, TV, and film. For an essay pertaining to Chaucer, search for Medieval Afterlives in Popular Culture…
Warner, Lawrence.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Surveys the "Langland archive" to address the history of the production and reception of "Piers Plowman."The "Conclusion" (pp. 129-40) reveals early eighteenth-century textual scholarship that attributes "Piers Plowman" to Chaucer.
Strakhov, Elizaveta.
Medium Aevum 85.2 (2016): 236-58.
Contends that Deschamps's "Ballade to Chaucer" alludes to a poetic debate between Philippe de Vitry and Jean de le Mote, to Ovidian exile, and to a poet's oeuvre as a garden. Claims that Deschamps's emphasis on translation and use of French and…
Star, Sarah.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 115, no. 4 (2016): 442-62.
Connects the shapeless mass of flesh, which Christian baptism miraculously reforms into a baby in the Middle English romance "The King of Tars," with a bloodless mass described by Chaucer's contemporary Henry Daniel as an "elvysch cake." Claims that…
Koff, Leonard.
R. F. Yeager and Brian W. Gastle, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower (New York: Modern Language Association, 2011), pp. 83-90.
Comparative essay that includes commentary on Chaucer's "volatile response" to the story of Philomela in his LGW, suggesting that Chaucer's account may reflect anxiety about Gower's influence.
Dean, James M.
R. F. Yeager and Brian W. Gastle, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower (New York: Modern Language Association, 2011), pp. 143-55.
Compares and contrasts Gower's tale of Florent with WBT and "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle," arguing that Gower and Chaucer "grapple with ethical circumstances in human relationships" (matters of right conduct and governance,…
Lightsey, Scott.
R. F. Yeager and Brian W. Gastle, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower (New York: Modern Language Association,
2011), pp. 36-41.
Compares and contrasts the uses of estates literature in works by Gower, Chaucer, and William Langland, explaining the didacticism of Gower, Chaucer's "playful 'show--don't tell'" in GP, and Langland's allusive allegorizing.
Pearsall, Derek.
R. F. Yeager and Brian W. Gastle, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower (New York: Modern Language Association, 2011), pp. 31-35.
Surveys Gower's reception among fellow poets and critics, including comments on the effect of Chaucer upon Gower's reputation and the value of comparing their versions of individual stories.
Yeager, R. F., and Brian W. Gastle, eds.
New York: Modern Language Association, 2011.
Twenty-five pedagogical essays by various authors, with an introduction by the editors and a comprehensive index. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower under Alternative Title.
Lewis, F. D.
A. A. Seyed-Gohrab, ed. Metaphor and Imagery in Persian Poetry (Boston, Mass.: Brill, 2012), pp. 137-203.
Describes and discusses two analogues to the pear tree episode in MerT (and in Boccaccio's "Decameron"), one in Persian by Rumi in his "Mathnavī," and one in Arabic by Ibn al-Jawzi in his "Kitāb al-adhkiyā'." Also describes and discusses two…
Argues that Gower's intention in "Confessio Amantis" is both "poetic, as well as political." Emphasizes how Chaucer and Gower are concerned with "authority and experience" in their poems. Discusses WBT in relation to Gower's "Tale of Florent."
Gross, Karen E.
Studies in Philology 109 (2012): 19-44.
Offers a "new description of Chaucer's interaction with Italian poetry," focusing on how he avoids borrowing several of its most innovative features: the "presence of a beatific lady," the tendency to elevate the poet's poetry to high authority, and…
Elson, Madeleine Beth.
Dissertation Abstracts International A78.02 (2016): n.p.
Examines Chaucer's engagement with his French contemporaries (e.g., Machaut, Froissart, Deschamps), suggesting that Chaucer may have adapted elements from those writers such as voice and form in establishing his own poetic authority.
