Chaucer's attitude toward love should be observed in the continuity of his works. LGW, which comes in between TC and CT, plays an important part in this connection. Here, human love is once again taken up to be praised with some controversial…
Some characteristics of the legend of Philomene, Phyllis, and Hypermnestra are discussed. The brief conclusion proves that the poet's attitude toward LGW is ambivalent; he seems to be mocking, satirical, and at the same time serious and even…
Olson, Glending.
James M. Dean and Christian Zacher, eds. The Idea of Medieval Literature: New Essays on Chaucer and Medieval Culture in Honor of Donald R. Howard (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992), pp. 72-90.
CT is a collection of narratives bound together in a frame with two central features: a pilgrimage and a game. The pilgrimage is the outer frame, while the game is a second, inner framing device--the organizing principle that brings the stories into…
If the Pardoner is taken as a hermaphrodite, it is easier to approach the question of how he can explain his false practices and still expect his listeners to be taken in by them. According to late medieval writers, the hermaphrodite's dual nature…
Coghill, Nevill.
London: English Association, 1971.
Explores the history of the idea of nobility or gentility in European tradition, tracing the etymology of "gentilesse" and Chaucer's importance in the development of the concept in English, especially in KnT, FranT, and WBT. Links Chaucer's uses to…
Rowland, Beryl.
Beryl Rowland, ed. Companion to Chaucer Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 117-42.
Chaucer's figurative language is mostly traditional, but its effect usually transcends the merely visual: it is emotional and intellectual--aiming at more than concrete realism. Often, however, the nature of this imagery eludes us because Chaucer's…
Studies Chaucer's similes and metaphors to trace the "development of imagery in each of [his] works" from BD through CT, suggesting that Chaucer shows a "progressive awareness of the image as an essential tool of his art." Results of statistical…
Assesses the six oaths by saints--Martyn, Denys, Peter, Yves, Austyn, and Jame--in ShT, arguing that familiarity with details of the saints' lives provokes the audience to condemn the characters in the Tale.
By comparing Chaucer's TC with Boccaccio's "Filostrato" in sounds, grammar, word choice, similes and metaphors, ambiguities, and construction, the article investigates Chaucer's literary and linguistic imitation and humorous innovation.
Trigg, Stephanie.
Seth Lerer, ed. The Yale Companion to Chaucer (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 297-323.
Trigg considers recurrent issues in the reception of Chaucer: responses to his self-shaped "poetic signature," admiration for his rhetoric and sentiment, and mourning for the loss of his genius by poets who seek to emulate him. Surveys rewritings and…
Identifies three aspects of Robert Henryson's uses of proverbial wisdom in his "Fables," locating precedent for each of them in a work by Chaucer: use of proverbs by fable characters (NPT), comic misapplication of proverbial wisdom (MilT), and…
Shigeo, Hisashi.
Hisao Turu, ed. Reading Chaucer's Book of the Duchess. Medieval English Literature Symposium Series, no. 5 (Tokyo: Gaku Shobo Press, 1991), pp. 142-70 (in Japanese).
Analyzes the relationship of the real world to the dream world in BD and surveys noncourtly innovations derived from French romances, taking account of Chaucer scholarship of the late twentieth century.
Lynch, Kathryn L.
John M. Hill, Bonnie Wheeler, and R. F. Yeager, eds. Essays on Aesthetics and Medieval Literature in Honor of Howell Chickering (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2014), pp. 115-28.
Explores metaphors of eating, drinking, hunting, and food preparation, within the framework of the "storytelling performances" of the Wife of Bath in WBT and the unnamed Wife in ShT.
Myles, Robert.
Dissertation Abstracts International 54 (1993): 172A.
Although Chaucer has been seen as a medieval nominalist or realist, or both at once, he should actually be recognized as an "intentional realist" in the modern (John F. Searle) sense.
Lightsey, Scott.
James M. Dean, ed. Geoffrey Chaucer (Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2017), pp. 171-85
Contends that Chaucer's "international presence," due to his European travels connected to his position and service within the court, "instilled in him a European sensibility distinctly at odds with his modern image as the avatar of Englishness."
Hicks, James E.
Essays in Medieval Studies 3: 78-98, 1986.
In PardPT, Chaucer inverts three major precepts of Augustinian sermon rhetoric ("De Doctrina Christiana"): the preacher must pray before preaching, the preacher must maintain a grave and appropriate demeanor, and the preacher must maintain Christian…
Ginsberg, Warren.
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Developing Walter Benjamin's model of translation and seeking to "rethink the dynamics of cross-cultural translation," Ginsberg explores how Chaucer's borrowings from and dependencies on Italian literature "disarticulate" the legacy of Dante,…
Interpretive biography and critical exploration of Chaucer's professional, diplomatic, and literary engagements with Italy, Italians, and Italian culture, seeking to "follow in Chaucer’s footsteps--to Milan, Genoa, Florence, Pavia, and beyond--and…
