Read as symptoms of a "childlike" individual "dealing with a number of psychosexual developmental issues," the Prioress's personal habits and narrative performance register anxiety not only about boundaries of the individual human body but also about…
Fradenburg, L. O. Aranye.
Holly A. Crocker and D. Vance Smith, eds. Medieval Literature: Criticism and Debates (New York; Routledge, 2014.), pp. 455-69.
Examines the "logic of sacrifice" that motivates actions in KnT, arguing that previous criticism "has done insufficient justice to the vile enjoyment and identificatory power" of KnT.
Fradenburg, Louise O.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 27 (1997): 47-75.
The logic of sacrifice (in particular, the sacrifice of the subject, Arcite) that permeates KnT produces a "jouissance," which the discourse of charity attempts to disguise.
Fradenburg, L. O. Aranye.
Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Fradenburg theorizes a new combination of historicism and Lacanian psychoanalysis and explores the medieval idea of sacrifice and its role in cultural production. Linking ethics and desire, sacrifice is a way of pursuing and prolonging desire, even…
King, Laura Severt.
Dissertation Abstracts International 54 (1994): 3757A.
Among the handful of converted whores, Mary Magdalene is best known in late medieval writing through the homily "De maria Magdalena" (which Chaucer translated) and the Digby play. These works reveal remarkably literal physicality in which carnal…
Epstein, Robert.
Robert Epstein and William Robins, eds. Sacred and Profane in Chaucer and Late Medieval Literature: Essays in Honour of John V. Fleming (Buffalo, N. Y.: University of Toronto Press, 2010), pp. 129-45.
Epstein argues for a nuanced understanding of money in SumT, reading its significations in light of the thirteenth-century Franciscan treatise "Sacrum commercium," medieval commercial practice, and deliberations on quality and quantity among the…
Heffernan, Thomas J.
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Using a new critical method, Heffernan examines the characteristics of the saint's life, sacred biography as historical narrative, important works and collections in the tradition, medieval attitudes toward virginity and chastity,rhetoric and the…
Jeffrey, David Lyle.
David Lyle Jeffrey, ed. Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1984), pp. 207-28.
The Aeneas story as cliche is appropriate for the poem's subject: fame. The fame of Aeneas was important in Christian historiography, but ambivalent because of his betrayal of Dido. Biblical language and allusion rather than "the story of Troy or…
ClT is not a religious tale but a secular story "enriched with religious symbolism." The Tale is domestic, not cosmic; there is no indication of a providential plan; God is only evoked twice; Griselda's vow is clearly secular; and her reward is…
Fleming, John V.
Thomas Hahn and Alan Lupack, eds. Retelling Tales: Essays in Honor of Russell Peck (Woodbridge, Suffolk; and Rochester, N.Y.: D. S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 73-90.
The sources for the Wife of Bath's performance as exegete--and the authorities she cites in her "Tale" (in particular Ovid,for the Midas story)--make clear that the underlying theme and conflict in WBPT concern "surface and substance, letter and…
Epstein, Robert, and Williams Robins, eds.
Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, 2010.
Nine essays by various authors, an introduction by the editors, a commentary on Fleming's critical legacy by Steven Justice, and a bibliography of Fleming's publications. For five essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Sacred and Profane in…
Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
Chaucer Review 28 (1993): 5-22.
Contemporary documents concerning aspects of liturgical life indicate that the people of Chaucer's time were a "fervent laity served by a fervent clergy," notwithstanding the adulterous monk of ShT and Chaucer's corrupt Pardoner, Summoner, and Friar.
Bradley, Nancy Warren.
Christianity and Literature 66.3 (2017): 386-403.
Contends that although "Pearl" and PrPT treat the Eucharist as orthodox, they nonetheless evoke religious debates concerning Lollardy and, relatedly, continental female mysticism. Argues that both the works feminize sacramental work, preach in ways…
Ross, Shaun.
Open access Ph.D. dissertation. McGill University, 2019.
Available at https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/. Accessed January 28, 2021.
Argues "that in early modern England the primary theoretical models by which poets understood how language means what it means were applications of
eucharistic theology." Opens with discussion of PardT, SumT, and Pearl "in the context of the debate…
Summarizes critics' attention to the Eucharistic references in PardT and explores how the Eucharist and the Mass as a reenactment of sacrifice underpin a number of details and images in the tale.
Black, Robert Ray.
Dissertation Abstracts International 35 (1975): 6090A.
Parody is the key to understanding the relation between Chaucer's comedy and Christianity. Through parody Chaucer achieves high seriousness and high comedy. Parody of sacral sign and symbols in PardT and Marriage Group produces poetry that can be…
Knight, Stephen.
London: Angus and Robertson, 1973
A series of five case studies in cloxe reading that demonstrate Chaucer's skill with prosodic and rhetorical devices; includes an appendix that defines and exemplifies "figures of style" (pp. 236-42). Chapter 1 contrasts the stylistic virtuosity of…
Delany, Sheila.
Sheila Delany, Medieval Literary Politics: Shapes of Ideology (University of Manchester Press, 1990), pp. 1-18.
Surveys utopian attitudes, including alchemy. CYT reflects Chaucer's awareness of the "genuinely subversive thrust" of alchemy as an alternative to Pauline-Augustinian orthodoxy.
Hardie, Philip.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Explores the meaning of Middle English "fama," derived from the Latin, in relation to the spoken word. Chapter 15, "Chaucer's 'House of Fame' and Pope's 'Temple of Fame'," analyzes relations between the spoken and written word in these poems, as well…
Cole contends that metrical groupings of works from the "Alliterative Revival" are faulty and that these groupings reflect inappropriate application of phonology common in the "poetic dialects" of Chaucer and Gower.
Storm, Mel.
Enarratio 14 (2010, for 2007): 139-51.
Storm surveys the debt to Chaucer's KnT in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," focusing on the works' mutual concern with hierarchy and order. In both works (and elsewhere in the authors' works), the figure of the Minotaur (parodied in…
Sanders, Arnold A.
David G. Allen and Robert A. White, eds. The Work of Dissimilitude: Essays from the Sixth Citadel Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1992), pp. 196-215.
Examines Gower's tale of Canace, the Man of Law's reference to the account, and the narrative treatment of the character Canace in SqT, arguing that Spenser fused them in his Canace. In his second (1596) edition of "The Faerie Queene" Spenser…
Tokunaga, Satoko.
Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 15 (2012): 59-78.
Examines the various kinds of rubrication in copies of books printed by Caxton, 1476-78, including his first edition of CT and his Bo, suggesting that, after printing, the "additional task of rubrication was carried out in an organized manner before…
Discusses historical reliability of witness lists as evidence of magnate activity and relationship to the crown. Provides tabular inventory of witnesses and percentage of charters witnessed by year.
Valdes Miyares, Ruben.
Ana María Hornero and María Pilar Navarro, eds. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of S.E.L.I.M. (Zaragoza: Institucion Fernando el Catolico (CSIC), 2000), pp. 267-75.
The Miller's bagpipe in GP epitomizes MilT, setting the pace for the pilgrimage and offering the rough justice of popular music as a human alternative to God's arbitrary judgment in the combat of KnT. The Miller questions the hegemony of vested…
