Browse Items (15542 total)

Haydock reads Caxton's spurious ending and epilogue to HF in the 1483 Book of Fame as a "canny as well as sympathetic reaction to the poem's ubiquitous concern with the transmission of literature."

PhyT expresses its narrator's concern with "fiduciary" ethics and asserts the principle that "responsible professionals abjure exploitation." Such concerns are part of the late medieval professionalization of medical practice, so the Tale is…

Explores issues of exemplarity and applicability in examples of Middle English literature--"Book of the Knight of the Tower," Gower's "Confessio Amantis," Lydgate's "Fall of Princes," Henryson's "Testment of Cresseid," and CT and TC. Chaucerian…

Examines the role of two "false memories" of Chaucer's life in the formation of nineteenth-century attitudes toward the poet and his reputation. The spurious incidents--Chaucer's exile and imprisonment and his "retirement" to a park at…

Although WBP and WBT seem more disparate than similar, they are not. The pairing of the two allows Alison to make a statement about how to love well and how to be happy.

Argues that Chaucer's "daun Russel the fox" in NPT 7. 3334 belongs to a centuries-long cohort of foxes whose tastes and tendencies Shakespeare applies to his wily Falstaff.

Falstaff and the Wife of Bath "use remarkably similar grammatical and syntactical strategies to manipulate language," to create "smokescreens" that cover their "nakedness," and "to try to reshape the world in their own image."

Examines Froissart's and Christine de Pisan's treatments of fame and the role of the poet in bestowing it. Questioning this tradition in HF, "Chaucer's art is to mask his own opinions and to reveal his readers' to themselves."

Argues that fifteenth-century verbal and visual depictions of Chaucer as an "aged penitent" (in Gascoigne, Hoccleve, Gower, Scogan, and the Bedford Hours) reflect the Derridean (and Augustinian) gaps that are evident in Ret and elsewhere in Chaucer's…

Uses HF--along with Langland's "Piers Plowman," "St. Erkenwald," and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"--as evidence in a discussion of the medieval understanding of the memorialization process, suggesting that fame "becomes emblematic" of the…

Discusses three topics - Ford Madox Brown's painting of Chaucer reading from MLT to a decadent court at a time of dynastic crisis, the current Middle Eastern situation, and the story of Noah's Flood - in relation to Chaucer's portrayal of Custance's…

Considers the body of the "Other" in various medieval romances. Chapter 1, "Ethnic Difference and Body Marvelous: the Case of Chaucer's 'Squire's Tale' and Sir Ferumbras," focuses on how SqT highlights Canace's ethnicity as a space for fantasy.…

Argues that January's foolish fantasy is MerT "is a version" of the Merchant's own, tracing the teller's "increasingly ambivalent attitude" toward his character "from detachment to attack." In January, the Merchant "tries to destroy his former self,"…

Denny-Brown analyzes sartorial changes accompanying the figure of Fortune from the twelfth century through the late medieval period, considering (along with works by other authors) Chaucer's For, Bo, Form Age, Wom Unc, BD, and MerT. Chaucer's uses of…

Describes the idea of the "servant-become-warrior" in the Japanese "Tale of Heike" and in KnT, commenting on the etymological roots of "samurai" and "knight" and exploring how concepts of determinism, service, and Foucauldian disciplinary power…

Precise astrological material and medical details pertaining to the disease "amor hereos" support the theory that Saturn and the fury that startles Arcite's horse dramatize the consequences of human choice rather than fatalism. Chaucer uses…

Details the strategy of "obeisant self-authorization " by which Lydgate places himself in Chaucer's debt, simultaneously embracing the older poet's influence and "overthrowing" his "paternal presence." He does this by controlling the Host-figure and…

Bishop assesses how the apparatus ("peritext") in Speght's edition of Chaucer's Works evokes Chaucer as a living presence and situates his poetry in the midst of Tudor politics. Although Speght derives much of his peritext from Thynne and Stow, his…

Examines the role of paternal authority and the figure of the father and their use and depiction in CT. Interrogates the construction of "Father Chaucer" to show how widespread this motif of paternal authority is in discussions of Chaucer and his…

Studies the incest motif in Confessio Amantis as a "fundamental element" in Gower's explorations of father-daughter relationships and the relationships of authority. In this context, Bullón-Fernández considers Chaucer's MLT and PhyT as analogues to…

Reexamines antimendicancy in Jean de Meun's "Roman de la Rose" and in CT, suggesting that Jean's portraits of friars should be seen primarily as portraits of hypocrisy and that Chaucer's portrayals of friars (especially in SumT) are mediated by the…

Chauntecleer's responses to the fox in his dream and in his initial sighting of the beast are rooted in Aristotelian traditions of psychology and natural antipathy, here traced from their classical roots through their medieval adaptations. The…

Etymological and semantic exploration of "fear" and related words that indicates nuances lost in translation between early English and modern editions and adaptations; discusses two uses of "no fere" in TC (3.583 and 1144) and an emendation of "thys…

Although Chaucer criticism divides into prefeminist, feminist, and postfeminist eras, postfeminist criticism often lapses into prefeminist exclusion of female readers and critics by assuming transhistorical categories of the masculine and feminine…

Describes the specific appearance of vellum, the types of quills used in creating a medieval manuscript, and animal-inflicted damage to manuscripts by mice, bugs, etc. Intersperses discussion of NPT with regard to Chauntecleer's appearance and…