Browse Items (16320 total)

Argues that KnT is a heightened, courtly "particularization" of a fundamental aspect of the human condition: "the disorderly promptings of carnal love and their disastrous effects." Considers the imagery of the poem (Christian, Boethian, fire, and…

Locates and assesses a prevailing irony in TC: the narrator and each of the major characters follows the "same pattern" of early knowledge of Fortune's instability, "followed by self-deception, and eventual submission to the facts." Love and truth…

Interprets SqT and FranT as "expressions of their tellers," with the latter being an "instructive modification" of the "Squire's attitude toward life." Contrasts the uses of rhetorical devices in SqT and KnT in order to show the Squire's youthful,…

Describes structural devices found in the medieval "artes poeticae," for example, those in treatises by Matthew of Vendome, Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and John of Garland, illustrating them with various literary works, including works by Chaucer. Discusses…

Illustrates how literary works "can be read existentially from the point of view of the reader's ontological concern with them," discussing James Joyce's "Clay," William Blake's "The Little Black Boy," and WBPT. Reads WBT as a "reflection of the…

Compares FranT with the tenth tale (Madassena and Her Rash Promise) of the "Vetalapachisi," identifying common motifs (rash promise, promise to return, and noble theft) and differences in frame, characterization, and setting. Observes relations with…

Explores the combination of religion and secularity in ClT, discussing its fusion of ideals and practical realities as Chaucer's means to increase the ambivalences of his sources. The tension between the Clerk's moralization of the Tale and its…

Identifies and analyzes the motifs and imagery of death in England in the fourteenth century to the sixteenth, including discussion of the relatively positive depictions of death in TC and CT.

Edits "Jack Upland" (wrongly attributed to Chaucer from the 16th century to the 18th), along with "Friar Daw's Reply" and "Upland's Rejoinder," with full critical apparatus.

Reads NPT as the teller's attack on the "anti-monastic" Monk (as well as the "indifferent" Prioress), contrasting the "sacerdotal demeanor" of the two clerics and arguing that the NPT is opposed to MkT in both theme and technique, focusing on their…

Explores the differences between PardP and PardT--differences in genre, atmosphere, and temporal dimension--arguing that they are part of the Pardoner's efforts to manipulate his audience. Contrasts the self-interested, time-bound play of the…

Defines ClT as an example of "Ideal Fiction," generally unpalatable to modern taste, identifying the presence of a manipulator in the plot (Walter), the narrative "distance" achieved through its combination of "ordinariness" and fantasy, the…

Assesses the "artistic function" of Emily in KnT, focusing on her place in the theme of order. As the poem moves from chaos to order, she symbolizes "psychological and cosmic order" and serves as an "exemplar of Fortune." As "natural woman," she also…

Describes the influence of Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum" on Chaucer, especially in FranT and WBP, and explains why the Pembrock MS 234, edited here, is "closer to Chaucer's source manuscript than any of the other" forty-two manuscripts considered…

Exemplifies Chaucer's "homely vocabulary" and "naturalistic choice of words," identifying roots in both French and native English, and commenting on instances of idiomatic phrases, rogues' speech, "zesty vocabulary," "oaths and imprecations," sexual…

Connects the "Tale of Gamelyn" to Chaucer with respect to concerns of class, legal, and cultural issues, and focuses on the theme of vulnerability as an important conceit of the poem.

One scribe included the "Tale of Beryn" in his copy of CT. The Prologue presents Chaucer's pilgrims after they arrive at Canterbury, and the tale is appropriate to its teller, a merchant. Argues that the "Beryn" author was "an intelligent and…

Given his "frequent equivocalness" on matters of high seriousness, there is good reason to believe that Prov, a "riddling poem" (NIMEV 3914), is Chaucer's work, philologists' objections on the basis of its inaccurate "compace"/"embrace" rhyme…

Examines the use of "daunce" in TC in order to explore the way dancing is linked to rhetoric in the interactions between the main characters.

Argues that Perez Galdos's "El amigo Manso" (1882) echoes TC in its concern with philosophical consolation, the theme of kinds of knowledge, and the narrator protagonist's mocking of his mourners in the afterlife. Like Troilus, Manso is an idealistic…

Considers medieval understandings of the relationship between attention and distraction or diversion, using several texts, ranging from Augustine to Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and TC.

Based on Nakao's earlier book, "The Structure of Chaucer's Ambiguity" (2004; in Japanese), this republished English version analyzes the "parole aspect of language" within an expanded study of ambiguity in TC. Proposes an original theoretical…

Argues that Chaucer's interpretation of Boethius, as shown in two key passages in TC, his translation of Bo, and a significant Bo manuscript, "enables him to present Troilus as a genuinely Boethian hero who channels philosophical insight into…

Considers the connection between ethics and emotional response in several Middle English texts, including TC.

Focusing on TC, argues that Chaucer relied heavily on previous works, primarily Dante's "Divina commedia," for theological and linguistic direction. Contends that Chaucer, like Dante, does not merely regurgitate biblical narratives, but expands on…