Browse Items (16035 total)

Contrasts TC and ManT as examples of metafiction, showing that in each the narrative persona is not a character in any traditional sense but a voicing of the author's concerns with language and fiction. ManT overtly declares the instability of…

The Middle Ages had developed a sophisticated semiotic theory. The legend of Troy permitted poets to explore language as the living expression of the social order. The principal sphere of action of TC is words, not swordblows or even kisses.

That "the major thread of coherence in medieval culture was its sustained reflection...upon language as a semiotic system--more broadly, upon the nature, the functions and the limitations of the verbal sign as a mediator of human understanding" is…

The fourteenth-century "Antiovidianus," a satire on Ovidian art, provides a convenient way to view Chaucer's CYPT. The works share chemical, theological, and scatological imagery,illuminating Chaucer's constant exploration of the "tension between…

Ovid and the Ovidian tradition provided Chaucer with a poetic ranging from the "game" of Ars Amatoria to the "ernest" of Tristia. Chaucer uses rhetoric to various ends with the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, and the Canon. In Ret, however, Chaucer…

The appearance of Mercury in Arcite's dream is usually thought to be derived from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', I. A more probable source, however, is Virgil's 'Aeneid', IV, where Mercury commands the hero to hasten on to Italy, just as in Chaucer Arcite…

Reinforces previous arguments that the immediate source of Chaucer's description of "Mercury the slayer of Argus" in KnT is Ovid's "Metamorphoses" 1.671-72, adding that, like Argus, Arcite finds death by listening to the "persuasive and deceitful…

Examining erotic elements, "identifications of the pear tree and the garden," and Mercury's role and attributes, Smarr analyzes similarities between Chaucer's and Boccaccio's handling of the pear-tree tale--similarities greater than those found in…

Throughout his works, Chaucer employs "mercurial figures" who appear as "emblematic escorts, to lead readers safely past narrative fissures." In BD, these figures appear not only as Mercury himself but also as the whelp (d-o-g for g-o-d), who…

In light of Gerald Brun's investigations into historical hermeneutic theories, Chaucer may be seen as employing messenger figures throughout his oeuvre, from BD to CT. This role applies especially to Alys of Bath (despite her claims on Venus and…

Score of musical setting for MercB, with text in Middle English, and an introductory note by Michael Kennedy. The score was published originally in 1922.

Score for a selection from MercB in modernized English.

Recording of MercB set to music, performed by the Vasari Singers, "Recorded 2016 February 12–14 Church of St. Judeon-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden, London."

Clerical anti-mercantile views gradually shifted as a "guardedly pro-trade ideology" emerged. Such attitudes also appear in estates satire found in CT, Gower's "Miroir de l'Omme," "Piers Plowman," Margery Kempe, the York cycle plays, and various…

Item not seen; reported by WorldCat, with abstract: argues that in MerT, Hoccleve's "Regiment of Princes," and Lydgate's "Fall of Princes" merchants are "used to model kingly virtues. By mapping monarchical characteristics onto merchants, these late…

Although critics often criticize the monk and wife of ShT for their lack of morals, the merchant's own dealings are not without blame. His bill of exchange may be illegal, and it parallels the arrangement between monk and wife. All three characters…

Assesses the epistemological implications of the growth in vocabulary in Middle English, focusing on Latin-derived terms for "very general concepts," many from philosophical discourse. Uses the OED and the MED as major sources, drawing evidence from,…

Compares editorial decisions from a linguistic perspective in Thomas Speght's 1602 edition of Chaucer’s works with Andro Hart's Middle Scots 1616 edition of John Barbour's "Brus" to assess the perception of the intelligibility of Middle Scots and…

Twelve essays by various authors on gender construction in TC, with an introduction (pp. 1-8). For individual essays, search for Men and Masculinities under Alternative Title.

Investigating the period between 1431 and 1631, Summit argues that libraries--particularly the Parker, the Cotton, and the Bodleian--enabled early modern projects of historical and cultural redefinition concurrent with Reformation ideology and…

Comments on Pierre Nora's theory of cultural memory loss and on Christopher Nolan's film "Memento" (2000). Then explores TC for the ways that it represents the relations between historical events and the reconstruction or remembering of these…

Examines the uses of memory and place to develop authoritative "ethos" in John Mandeville's "Travels," Margery Kempe's "Book," WBP, and WBT. The Wife relies on medieval commonplace texts and essentially turns her own experience into such a text.

Medieval medical writings on love-sickness emphasize memory. Memory of Criseyde's beauty, initially the cause of Troilus's malady, remains with him, combining with facets of Augustinian tradition, to permit his final transcendence. Annotated…

Collects twelve essays from the 2016 conference on memory and identity, with a preface and a cumulative index. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Memory and Identity in the Medieval and Early Modern World under Alternative Title.

Argues that "Middle English 'defaute,' signifying both lack and loss, characterizes the work of mourning" in BD, considering the "interplays between the poem's articulations of toponyms and its figurations of 'White' as simultaneously a deceased body…