Browse Items (15542 total)

A double reception was given Th in the eighteenth century. Dane agrees with Warton that Th is not a "grave heroic narrative" but a humorous tale. The burlesque Th is an eighteenth-century creation. Treats genre of Th and SqT and twentieth-century…

Increased concern with female characters in KnT distinguishes it from traditional epics, and its presentation of women and gender relationships embodies "evolutionary changes" in the romance genre. Nonetheless, Emily is imprisoned at the end "in yet…

Considers Chaucer's understanding of "tragedy" in Bo, MkT, and TC, tracing this understanding to Dante's use of the term in his "Inferno," where it is affiliated with history. In TC, Chaucer chose to emulate Boccaccio's "Filostrato" because doing so…

Ferster explores the importance of genre for understanding CT, a collection of different genres. Discusses how Chaucer stretches, plays with, and interrogates genre by combining features of genre and the expectations they create. Concentrates on the…

Despite the difficulties of comparing literature cross-culturally, CT and the "Heike Monogatari" are similar in their "middle" styles, their adaptability to parody, and their capacious allusions to "native and foreign literary studies."

Pakkala-Weckstrom applies linguistic "politeness theory" to the use of pronouns as "forms of address in male/female dialogue" in MilT, MerT, ShT, ClT, Mel, WBT, and FranT. Usage is similar in the romances and religious tales but differs in the…

Reviews two books about Chaucer: "Language of Chaucer's Poetry: An Appraisal of Verse, Style and Structure" by Norman E. Eliason; and "Disembodied Laughter: 'Troilus' and the Apotheosis Tradition" by John M. Steadman.

Fourteen articles by various hands. For five essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Genres, Themes, and Images in English Literature from the Fourteenth to the Fifteenth Century under Alternative Title.

A study of the ethical and social dimensions of gentilesse and gentils in KnT, WBT, ClT, MerT, SqT, FranT, Th, Mel, MkT, NPT, ManT, and SumT.

The "Gawain" poet and Chaucer (through the mediating Wife of Bath) modify conventional details of character, description, and action, producing protagonists who develop or who come to self-awareness in ways more complicated than elsewhere in the…

In TC, Chaucer uses not only sophisticated, upper-class materials but also lower-class matter that has "moved 'upward' into the most prestigious and learned layers of medieval discourse." This "gentrification" can best be seen in Chaucer's use of…

Biographical review; consideration of the fourteenth-century cultural context; and critical discussion of all of Chaucer's works. Half of the chapters are devoted to the CT, divided by subject and tone into secular romances, fabliaux, religious…

Sees Chaucer's world in the midst of change from feudalism to mercantilism. Threats to society represented by dream visions must yet be integrated into the rational structure. The CT pilgrimage is a Peasant's Revolt in reverse. Knight takes a…

Nine previously published essays or exerpts. Topics include Chaucer's "greatness" (G. K. Chesterton), the ending of TC (E. Talbot Donaldson), the impact of MerT (E. Talbot Donaldson), Wife of Bath as narrator (David Parker), Chaucer in the…

Twenty previously published essays, in English or German, and a bibliography (447-69) arranged by individual work. The volume opens with Erzgräber's "Chaucer-Forschung im 20. Jahrhundert: Einleitung" (pp. 1-31), an introduction to the essays…

Historicist introduction to Chaucer's life, works, literary context, and influence.

The 12-volume "Patrimoine litteraire europeen" surveys major European authors and works from the early roots of European literature to the present, providing for each an introduction, a short bibliography, and extracts in French translation--some…

Surveys Chaucer's life and art in light of their cultural contexts, commenting on his status as a court poet, the nature of his audience, his self-consciousness and uses of contemporary literary forms, his relations to his contemporaries, and his…

An introduction to Chaucer that surveys critical issues and concentrates on how oppositions are posed in his poetry rather than resolved. Topics include the following: The Chaucer Business; Life, Works, Reputation; Dream, Text, Truth; Society,…

Impressionistic praise of Chaucer's ability to combine human sensitivity with comedy, his refusal to be cowed by Dante, his characterizations, and his irony.

Describes the historical and regional characteristics of Chaucer's vocabulary, his particular uses of various registers, and how he adapts them to circumstances and contexts.

Treats Chaucer as a "means of entry" into the political and cultural world of late fourteenth-century England, surveying Chaucer's works (CT most extensively) and summarizing his life and reception. Includes a brief bibliography.

Comments on Chaucer's life and works, focusing on his narrative timing, depth of characterization, and linguistic subtlety as means to express sympathy for human weakness. Includes three glossed passages from CT and two wood engravings by Barry Moser…

Includes a brief biography, bibliography, and introduction to CT; summaries of GP, KnT, WBPT, and PardPT; and excerpts from critical studies of these sections of CT.

Comments on implications of the lists of works in Chaucer's Ret and their relationship to the fragmentary nature of CT.