Browse Items (15542 total)

Argues that sodomy in medieval literature must be understood as an "unspecified plurality of acts and intentions," which includes women as well as men. Female sodomy occupies the "silent place in the discourse" that must be acknowledged in modern…

Establishes a link between the "preamble" in WBP and the sermon genre.

Analyzes parallel sections of text from William Caxton's two editions of CT set by the same compositor—Mel and ParsT, NPT and ManT—comparing practices in prose tales and verse tales, and also comparing the practices of the compositor of Richard…

Analyzes Edward Burne-Jones's illustrations of Rom in the Kelmscott Chaucer, arguing that they--and especially the final illustration of the poem--epitomize many of Burne-Jones's experiences with and attitudes toward books, book history, and the…

Assesses variations in copies of Stow's edition of Chaucer and suggests that copies with woodcuts may have been printed before those without and that Stow himself may have been involved in in-house corrections to the text, particularly that of Adam.…

Focuses on the ordinatio and implications of illustrations to CT (apart from those in the Ellesmere MS): the "generic 'author' image" found in MS Lansdowne 851, MS Bodley 686, and the "Devonshire" MS; the portrait of the Friar in MS Rawlinson poet.…

Surveys the history of handpress printing of CT, analyzing 140 editions, with particular attention to paratextual material as indication of Chaucer's reception and the "abundance of mediation."

English respect for vernacular authors anticipates the Renaissance. Chaucer created for our language and its heritage a conception of culturally significant authority based on textual correctness. More than other Middle English poets, Chaucer…

A report of the main papers read both at the Fourth International Chaucer Congress in York, England (1984), and at the Fourteenth International Arthurian Congress in Rennes, France (1984).

Burger explores how MerT scrutinizes developments in class and gender identities and valuations of marital love and subjectivity that grew out of twelfth-century Gregorian Reform. In direct contrast to WBPT (and in response to ClT), the Merchant…

Argues that the "horizon of expectations" (a concept derived from Hans Jauss) of FranT is never fulfilled by the narrative. Although the Franklin strives to meet social and generic expectations, he leaves his Tale open-ended--Chaucer's means of…

Wallace contemplates and reconstructs historical understanding of several locations, using visual and verbal texts to recapture perspectives of medieval and early modern witnesses or visitors.

Maintains that MLT represents cultural and textual transmission through a network of premodern media: voices, texts, bodies, culture, human actions, and nonhuman forces---media which represent an alternative to the hegemonic, institutional, and…

The Prioress's synthesis of elements from the legends of the martyred schoolboy suggests that she is complying with papal bulls that prohibit accusing Jews of kidnapping and ritual murders, but muances of PrT, and association with Hugh of Lincoln,…

Not mere ornament, the "effictio,"or physical and spiritual portrait, had become a fixed literary convention by the time of Geoffrey of Vinsauf. Bice analyzes Chaucerian characters from GP, KnT, NPT, and MilT, as well as from "Sir Gawain and the…

Frames an assessment of literary theory with opening and closing comments on TC, claiming that, at the end of the poem, "Chaucer, in effect, is doing theory" and, by doing so, "converts his text into something residual and emergent, pleasurable and…

Offers a "brief history" of Japanese translations of CT and focuses on the versions--complete and selected--by Kenji Kaneko, first published in 1917, revised and rereleased in 1923 and 1946. Explores the historical cultural conditions of Kaneko’s…

A series of stand-alone studies, most reprinted in revised form from earlier publications. Includes a newly edited and translated Cistercian sermon and a new essay, "Langland and Preaching." Also includes, among other revisions, "Chaucer's Norfolk…

References to medieval treatises and exegetical tradition suggest that the Pardoner's connection with ale, dove, and tree indicates that, through avarice, he is too literal to preach God's word. The Old Man, taken literally by the Pardoner,…

Explores the relationship between the lyric and late-medieval preaching, the sermon context, Latin manuscripts of sermons,the Latin hymn tradition, Friar John de Grimestone, preaching verse styles, oral traditions, and homiletic use of verse, with…

This illustrated collection of twelve essays on Pre-Raphaelite art and literature and their medieval heritage includes an introduction by the editor and a bibliography. For three essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Pre-Raphaelitism and…

Addresses issues of the order of CT and, following the discussion of Charles A. Owen, Jr. (1977), argues that ParsT was once intended to complete the work. However, Chaucer revised his plan when he "evolved a new and impossibly grandiose scheme for…

Argues that concern with Providence is a major factor in the "high seriousness" of Chaucer's poetry, exploring relations between theological and poetic formulations of Providence before Chaucer and in a variety of his works.

The record of surviving manuscripts shows three patterns in the production of collections of CT: the gathering in of examplars for the specific occasion; the use as exemplar of an already written manuscript of CT; and the use of a collection of…

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…