Browse Items (16231 total)

Although there is little doubt that Chaucer is a medieval poet, his emphasis on the real world in CT and his use of temporal and reality-based allusions point to a Renaissance influence.

Argues that Chaucer criticized the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, treating the medieval status of the Parson; Lollardy; and Chaucerian concern with people of the lower classes.

Revises and expands De Gaynesford's essay "Speech Acts, Responsibility, and Commitment in Poetry" (2013), which identifies a type of poetic performative speech-act that he labels the "Chaucer-type," explaining it by reference to the poet's dedication…

Judging Chaucer's works, especially NPT, by modern critical and cultural-literary standards deprives us of the "ideas and customs" of Chaucer's age, which are necessary for proper appreciation.

Shows that "The Plowman's Tale" was published (ca. 1536) by Thomas Godfray with a "calculated and propagandist purpose," part of Henry VIII's "propagandist organization" affiliated with Thomas Berthelet, Henry VIII's "official printer." Demonstrates…

Argues for choosing "wrighte" over "wight" among the manuscript variants of WBP 3.117, justifying the choice on the grounds of source material and consideration of scribal choices and practices.

Philological translation into French of TC 5. Based on John Warrington's editions, revised by Maldwyn Ellis (Dent: Everyman Classics 1992, 1974)

Produced by Cromwell Productions.

A non-academic biography of Chaucer focusing on his responses to the sociohistorical concerns of the "Black Death, war, class, race, religion and social justice" (p. 256). It reprises a view of Chaucer held in the early twentieth century: genial,…

An introduction to Chaucer's "life, times, and works" (originally published in 1953; 2nd ed. 1965) which attempts "to suggest (rather than to describe) something of the general quality of Chaucer's age, and to note the chief events of Chaucer's early…

Chaucer had the opportunity, if not any singularly discernible motive, for actually raping Cecily Chaumpaigne, stepdaughter of Alice Perrers. Alice may have been the prototype of Alice of Bath and may even have been the mother of the illegitimate…

Chaucer's ability to draw female characters--in particular, Criseyde and the Wife of Bath--sets him apart from contemporaries in a male-dominated society. The subjectively described Criseyde, with her "slydynge" heart, and the objectively described…

The manners in which the Miller, Summoner, and Manciple tell their tales are evidence of Chaucer's interest in the psychology of class conflict. The social events of medieval England and Chaucer's own situation reflect class issues.

Explores Chaucer's attitude toward the Boethian notion that "right reasoning alone should guarantee rhetorical success." Mirrored in Chaucer criticism and inflected by issues of gender and point of view, "objectivity," effective persuasion, and…

Includes essays exploring connections among Chaucer's works, courtly life, and Arthuriana. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Chaucer, Arthur, and Medieval Roman III under Alternative Title. In Japanese, except for Chapters 1-3.

Milowicki advances several "speculations" about Chaucer's "French connections," particularly his possible introduction at the French court to the "study of the stars" and to the controversy of the relationship between astronomy and astrology…

Surveys Chaucer's concern with the coexistence of a beneficent God and the suffering of humans in KnT, MLT, ClT, and FranT. Chaucer often poses this issue by alluding to Job.

Chaucer exemplifies one of Mikhail Bakhtin's important claims that laughter can engage and comment on human systems and can function as a form of social and intellectual critique. Engle briefly surveys Bakhtinian theory, suggests its power in…

Examines "the different use to which Chaucer and Boccaccio have put certain raw narrative material belonging to the tradition of popular comic literature" of their cultural heritage--i.e., Chaucer's use of sources in RvT as opposed to Boccaccio's in…

Expands upon Harold Bloom's concept of the "anxiety of influence" to explore agonistic revisionism through translation in medieval literature, focusing on transmission from Italy to England and illustrating in detail how "verbal, phrasal,…

Popular understanding of their works is a central issue in both Boccaccio and Chaucer. Boccaccio's urbanity and sophistication reflect the qualities of his cultured, mercantile audience. Chaucer (e.g., PardT) is only apparently more naive, working…

"The Decameron" should be seen as a source of CT despite the lack of verbal parallels. Each work forms "an itinerary for the reader, if a highly indirect one, towards the good." "The Decameron" leads to Griselda, while CT leads to the Parson's…

Discusses the friar, comparing Chaucer's anticlericalism to Boccaccio's in the "Decameron."

Explores several of Chaucer's and Boccaccio's characters and how their autobiographical self-invention is both modern and tied to the past. The importance of confession in developing the sense of the individual is played out in the prologues and…

Focuses on close analysis of words and details in GP description of the Knight ("worthy") and in KnT ("erthely," 1.1166) to argue that Arcite is a morally flawed lover, Theseus is an "anti-hero," and the Knight pompous--especially when read in light…