Item noit seen. The second of the two verse dramas included here, "De Raptu Meo," is an adaptation of a portion of O’Connor’s "Chaucer’s Triumph" (2007), depicting Chaucer as he is accused of raping Cecily Chaumpaigne.
Hass, Robin Ranea.
Dissertation Abstracts International 56 (1996): 3949A-50A
In the light of medieval "artes poetriae," rhetoric is perceived as feminine. Chaucer's hagiography, courtly romance, and fabliaux demonstrate rhetoric in various modes: as chaste, "pedestal," and wanton, especially as voiced by the Clerk and the…
Edmondson, George.
Elizabeth Scala and Sylvia Federico, eds. The Post-Historical Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 139-60
The appearance of naked "Geoff" Chaucer in Brian Helgeland's film, "A Knight's Tale," "challenges the logic of the present . . . assumed by presentism," even while reminding us that historical periods exist, "each one haunted by the moment of its…
This anthology of drama, poetry, fiction, and essays that pertain to Medea ranges from Euripides to the late twentieth century, including a facing-page selection (pp. 114-23) from the story of Hypsipyle and Medea in LGW, presented in Middle English…
Explores the skeptical uncertainly about dreams that is expressed in the opening of HF as it relates to classical and medieval notions of "mythopoesis" and the validity and interpretation of poetry. Reads HF as a parody of mythopoesis.
Renda, Patricia A.
Dissertation Abstracts International 66 (2005): 1759A.
Considers Chaucer's rendition of Lucrece (in LGW) as part of a series of narratives that transform Lucrece's story into a text that "reveal[s] an evolving patriarchal ideology."
Heinrichs, Katherine.
Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 12 (1991): 13-39.
Mythological lovers alluded to in TC were associated in medieval letters with "amor stultus," foolish love. Allusions to Oenone, Tereus and Procne, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Myrrha help characterize the love of Troilus and Criseyde as foolish,…
Explores historicity and fictionality in medieval narratives of early. mythic Thebes. Includes brief commentary on the sources of Chaucer's knowledge of Oedipus and his conflation of Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes in KnT 1.1470ff.
Drake, Graham Nelson.
Dissertation Abstracts International 50 (1990): 2046A.
A study of later medieval commentaries on classical myth in the Boethian work sheds light on such matters as Chaucer's treatment of the Muses and Lydgate's view of Hercules.
Dane, Joseph A.
[Santa Barbara, Calif.]: Punctum, 2018.
Includes a series of essays in medieval studies and book history that are concerned "with the tenuous connection between what we define as evidence and what we construct as the narrative, scholarly or historical, that makes sense of that evidence."…
Roddy, Kevin.
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 10 (1980): 1-22.
Problems of tone--comic versus tragic--make the reader of MLT uneasy. There is also the problem of the weakness of the "literal narrative and the heavy-handed intrusions of the author." One can discern meaningful form, however, if one observes that…
Piehler, Paul.
J. Stephen Russell, ed. Allegoresis: The Craft of Allegory in Medieval Literature (New York and London: Garland, 1988, for 1987), pp. 187-214.
Although scholars agree that Chaucer failed to provide a solution to the problems raised in PF, Piehler argues through a reading on scholastic principles that Chaucer solves them "in accordance with principles characteristic of his age and…
Kelly, Edward Hanford.
Papers on Language and Literature 03, supplement (1967): 28-30.
Assesses the Helen-Deiphebus sub-plot in TC for the ways that it reinforces the poem's theme of inconstancy and anticipates Criseyde's relationship with Diomedes.
Urban, Malte.
Thomas Honegger, ed. Riddles, Knights and Cross-dressing Saints: Essays on Medieval English Language and Literature (Bern: Lang, 2004), pp. 33-54.
Presenting Troy in TC as the mirror image of London in the 1380s, Chaucer engages conflicting notions of history and historiography. In particular, his depiction of the Trojan parliament is a warning to his contemporaries. Chaucer embraces…
Meecham-Jones, Simon.
Neil Thomas and Françoise Le Saux, eds. Myth and Its Legacy in European Literature. Durham Modern Languages Series (Durham: University of Durham), 1996, pp. 93-113.
Meecham-Jones contrasts LGWP with BD, showing how the former exhibits the poet's confidence in adapting sources. Discusses the depiction of Alceste as a parody of figures such as Boethius's Philosophy, Dante's Beatrice, and the Pearl-maiden -…
Cady, Diane.
Craig E. Bertolet and Robert Epstein, eds. Money, Commerce, and Economics in Late Medieval English Literature (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp. 109-26.
Explores "links between gender ideology and money in the late Middle Ages," arguing that Chaucer's "depiction of his purse as a faithless female lover" in Purse reflects the "cultural imaginary around money before the emergence of
political…
McLane, Maureen N.
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012.
Combines memoir with literary criticism to explore the importance of poetry in the examined life. Begins with discussion of TC and Chaucer's use of "kankedort."
Autobiographical remembrance/contemplation by a gay medievalist in New York. Includes frequent references and allusions to medieval topics, including Chaucer, here described as "really the most important thing in the world."
Arguing for the prominence of the Biblical account of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac in medieval culture, the author observes the presence of children as sacrificial figures in MkT, PrT, PhyT, MLT, and ClT, and notes the rewards of faith in those…
Pugh, Tison.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 33 (2011): 149-81.
Assesses Jacques Lacan's and Slovoj Žižek's discussions of courtly love, focusing on the hermaphroditic potential of the Courtly Lady, and discusses FranT for the ways that hermaphroditic and masochistic tendencies inhabit the main characters'…
Considers the narrative structures of various narrative poems in Old and Middle English, especially as these relate to an "apocalyptic sense of history" and the dislocations it produces. Includes a chapter on TC.
Raybin compares the work by the Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer with ClT. Both works involve a powerful man who marries a poor girl and who eventually dismisses her. Pramoedya pays careful attention to the heroine's thoughts and feelings,…
Chamberlain, David.
John P. Hermann and John J. Burke, eds. Signs and Symbols in Chaucer's Poetry (University: University of Alabama Press, 1981).
Chaucer uses both conventional and original musical signs, some "in bono," some "in malo." His originality manifests itself in five main areas: "single signs, elaborate combinations, vivid contrasts, recurring symbolism, and overall structure," as…
The Pardoner ironically depicts his musicians playing the wrong instruments for a successful performance, thereby indicating the inherent (and disastrous) competitive nature of their fellowship.
