Thomas, Alfred.
Miriamne Ara Krummel and Tison Pugh, eds. Jews in Medieval England:Teaching Representations of the Other (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 119-39.
Describes a pedagogy and practice of reading PrT in light of the historical pogrom in Prague (1387), a Latin narrative of the pogrom ("Passio Judeorum Pragensium"), a Czech-and-Latin fragmentary play entitled "Ungentarius" (Ointment Seller), and…
Treats as "neighboring texts" Chaucer's account of Pedro I of Castile and Leon (MkT 7..2375-90) and that of Pere Lopez de Ayala in "Cronica del rey don Pedro," theorizing the notion of "neighbor"; exploring the inclusions, omissions, and enigmas of…
Discusses the genre of "lay" as a subset of romance, and places individual lays in their historical and literary contexts, reexamining the meaning of "Breton" in relation to medieval Celtic literature more generally. Compares Chaucer's lays to…
Steinberg, Theodore L.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2003.
An introduction to the study of medieval literature, with chapters on "Beowulf," "Chrétien de Troyes, the "Lais" of Marie de France, "The Romance of the Rose," "The Tale of Genji," Jewish literature, sagas, Dante, "Pearl," "Sir Gawain and the Green…
McMullan, Gordon, and David Matthews, eds.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Twelve essays by individual authors, with an introduction by the editors that discusses modern England's ambivalent fascination with the Middle Ages, including, briefly, Shakespeare and Fletcher's "Two Noble Kinsmen" - an adaptation of Chaucer's KnT.…
Reale, Nancy M.
James J. Paxson and Cynthia A. Gravlee, eds. Desiring Discourse: The Literature of Love, Ovid Through Chaucer (Selinsgrove, Penn.: Susquehanna University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1998), pp. 165-76.
In TC, Chaucer poses a tension between "Boccaccio's interest in the persuasive powers of linguistic skills to create private realities" and Dante's depiction of poetry as a means to transcendent enlightenment. This tension makes TC a poem "that…
Observes that the tail-rhyme meter's layout on the manuscript page alludes not to romance but to a range of other forms, including liturgical hymns, vernacular lyrics, and drama. Examining Th in these contexts suggests that the text perhaps parodies…
Taylor, Andrew.
Jacqueline Murray and Konrad Eisenbichler, eds. Desire and Sexuality in the Premodern West (Toronto; Buffalo, N.Y.; and London: University of Toronto Press, 1996), pp. 280-95.
Cites E. Talbot Donaldson's appreciation of May in MerT as an example of "iconologia," sexualized analysis or penetration of art or literature. Sexual titillation in reading is evident in medieval manuscripts and in modern responses to medieval…
Gwiazda, Piotr.
Carmina Philosophiae 11: 75-91, 2002.
Reads Form Age as a "document of hope"; its lamentation of present ills recalls the Golden Age of the past but does so to provide a blueprint for a perfect and enduring future.
Anderson, Judith H.
New York: Fordham University Press, 2008.
Anderson considers intertextuality to be both a result of authorial intent and an inevitability of language, assessing various kinds of influence, imitation, allusion, and citation. Allegory is a "process of thinking," a kind of metaphor that is…
Blurton, Heather, and Hannah Johnson.
Chaucer Review 50.1-2 (2015): 134–58.
Examines manuscript circulation of PrT showing Chaucer's reception as a Marian poet. This tale was not only used in devotional texts but was responded to in this register by Lydgate and Hoccleve.
Edden, Valerie.
Ilha do Desterro 18:2 (1987):15-33.
Analyzes MilT "using a theory of narrative analogous with transformational grammar," which assumes not merely a "grammar of narrative" but also "narrative competence," or ability of the reader or hearer to understand. Edden explores the function of…
Goodwin, Amy Wright.
Dissertation Abstracts International 52 (1991): 533A.
Analyzes how GP and the dramatic links in CT affect reader interest and narrative. Suggests that the Clerk misreads allegory for mimesis and critiques Petrachan poetics and the narrowness of the moral, exemplary tales.
Sylvester, Louise.
Studies in Medievalism 10: 120-35, 1998.
Reviews scholarship on the case of Chaucer and Cecilia Chaumpaigne, focusing on the meaning of raptus. Discusses recent treatments of rape as trope and explores its social and legal implications in medieval texts.
Warburton, Rachel.
Mihoko Suzuki and Roseanna Dufault, eds. Diversifying the Discourse: The Florence Howe Award for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship, 1990-2004 (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2006), pp. 270-87.
Warburton explores historical and literary connections between notions of female "goodness" and ability to be raped, examining the discourse of Cecily Chaumpaigne's accusation of rape and the tales of Lucretia and Philomela in LGW. The afterword,…
The dreamer/narrator's account of the Black Knight and Lady White in BD textualizes their discursive performances, revealing them to be institutionalized discourses desired by the narrator and his audience. The work provides interpretive closure…
Newman, Claire.
English Review (Deddington, Oxfordshire) 13.1 (2003): 2-5.
Summarizes performance features of WBP (echoes of preaching, animal imagery, range of emotion, entertainment value) appropriate to fourteenth-century encounters with the text as an aural experience.
Stewart, Vaughn.
Dissertation Abstracts International A77.11 (2017): n.p.
Examines "the paratextual, literary, historical, and physical ways print books serve as brokers of authority," including discussion of how William Caxton, in his editions of Chaucer, "inaugurates the printer as a necessary intermediary between the…
Responding to the growing custom of reading silently, Chaucer focuses on the dilemma that there can be no interpretation without will but that the use of will can lead to prejudiced, subjective interpretations. The birds cannot communicate, but the…
Sylvester, Louise.
Leeds Studies in English 31: 115-44, 2000.
Examines how rape narratives explore relationships between literary conventions and the erotic, especially female erotic masochism, homosocial attraction, and the nexus of desire and abject sexuality.
A survey of Middle English literature, designed to accompany the author's anthology "A Book of Middle English" (with J. A. Burrow; 3rd ed., 2005). Treats six topics: the English language; manuscripts, scribes, and audiences; literature and society,…
Stein, Robert M., ed.
Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, 2005.
Twenty essays by various authors and a bibliography of Hanning's publications. The essays are divided into three sections: history and romance, Chaucer's works, and Italian contexts. For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Reading…
