Browse Items (15542 total)

Focuses on "generic links" between MLPT and "the ancient novel/Greek romance," especially multiple adventures as a plot device and the motif of incestuous desire that is both "rife" in the plot of MLT and a "conspicuous absence." Shows how incest…

Conducts a "systematic analysis of the synchronic spatio-temporal systems" in Astr, taking "deixis into consideration," defining terms, and analyzing the interactions of "pronouns, demonstratives, adverbs, tense forms, and modals," along with…

Assesses the spatial prepositions in Astr, arguing that the availability of the instrument to the audience of Astr made it possible for Chaucer to use imprecise indicators of space, that the prepositions used are "semantically transparent," and that…

Theorizes how "fundamental ways of apprehending space in the past can differ from our own," focusing on local, everyday spaces, their boundaries, and their contents, and exemplifying medieval notions with details and descriptions from Chaucer's…

Explores what Chaucer's romances "say about . . . individuality and identity," interpreting spaces, movements, and characters' perception of them in KnT for how they "delimit" behaviors even though these limitations are disrupted by individual…

Places Troilus's Hymn to Love, based on Boethius, in the context of Neoplatonic metaphysics, cosmology, and theories of love (pp. 78-79).

A pedagogical anthology of twelve short stories, each accompanied by exercises to improve reading comprehension. Includes PardT in modern English (pp. 23-28), excluding the sermon on the tavern vices, followed by questions about plot and vocabulary…

Tabulates Chaucer's allusions to Spanish people and places; explores ways to account for these political, social, and cultural references and what they can tell us about medieval Spanish/English relations.

Argues that Chaucer's Ret was influenced by the prologue to Don Juan Manuel's "El Conde Lucanor," citing parallels not only in attitude and sentiment but also in structure, syntax, and grammar. Uses discourse analysis to compare linguistic features.

Although hedged in by bookish tradition, Chaucer "continually stretches the boundaries as he sets himself up as a legitimate auctor." Jensen assesses several of Chaucer's "self-authorising" interventions in the proems of TC, in WBP, and in Ret,…

Examines a series of English literary texts in which "the portrayal of landscape does both elegiac and political work." Includes CT, which "represents a new sphere of civic and economic movement within established space."

Following Foucault, Root examines the theory that patristic tradition and ecclesiastical practice eventually permitted confessional self-representation, as seen especially in WBT, Livre du voir dit, and Libro di buen Amor.

Examines how the confessional mandate of the Fourth Lateran Council provoked the rise of vernacular penitential manuals, and their impact on literary characters from Chaucer, Machaut, and the Libro de buen amor.

The action of TC takes place in both naturalistic and schematic space. This opposition is reinforced by the creation of an intrusive narrator and a fictional audience. Schematic space functions as a principle of limitation, reinforcing the…

Considers ParsT in light of Lollard concern with the use of English, the themes and drama of MLE and ParsP, and the inclusion of ParsT in MS Longleat 29. Longleat indicates that lay readers used ParsT for private devotional purposes, although the…

Identifies several medieval visual images of a sow playing bagpipes and suggests that the iconography underlies the reference to bagpipes and the two references to a female pig in the GP description of the Miller, helping to characterize him as…

Excavations in 1919-21 reveal that Sarai, in the Volga region of southeastern Russia, was an exotic metropolis combining Byzantine and Mongolian splendor. Its artisans produced rings and mirrors, and its Mongol warriors covered their horses with…

Describes sovereignty in CT (particularly ParsT) as "a legitimate means of exercising power, distributed hierarchically but founded on the idea of mutual responsibility and equality in the eyes of God." Explores how, in light of this concept,…

Rooted in Irish analogues, the sovereignty theme is anchored in the queen figure in WBT. The theme reflects "women's integral role in governance," a "wishful vision of a movement toward more egalitarian society," and Anne of Bohemia's role in the…

The "temporal disorder" and "internationalism" of MLT--combined with its examination of competing familial and institutional loyalty--depict sovereignty as a redemptive governmental form capable of healing the ills of late medieval England, including…

Summarizes the "antagonistic and contradictory views on women" held by the medieval Church, and explores Chaucer's views of women by examining his uses of the motifs of sovereignty and obedience in marriage from BD through CT, focusing on three…

Suggests that FranT is an exposé of "bourgeois sentimentality," and argues that its "central theme" is the "difficulty of perceiving truth in a world of illusions." Self-deceived, the Franklin mistakes his own desires for reality. He projects a false…

WBT, Gower's "Tale of Florent," the "Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell," and "The Marriage of Gawain" (from the Percy Folio) are sufficiently different from the Irish tales of the transformed hag to raise doubts about the transmission of this…

Strohm assesses historical implications of the concern with civic and personal cleansing in Lydgate's "Troy Book" and comments on Chaucer's imagery of cleansing in GP, his concern with civic orderliness in KnT, and his personal experiences with…

Compares WBT with its analogues to show that Chaucer's alterations of the plot "redefine such central concepts as 'honor' and 'sovereignty' in feminine terms," consistent with the gender of its teller. By emphasizing moral precept instead of…