Browse Items (15542 total)

Compares the themes of love in marriage in CT with those in "Mo-shang" and "K'ung-ch'ueh tung-nan."

Includes Th and a selection from MerT in the section called "Backgrounds and Context."

The "sponsa" of the "Song of Songs" is traditionally interpreted as Mary, and thus through January's aubade (4.2138-48) May becomes an ironic echo of the Virgin. The deep ironies of this association reflect the more straightforward presentations of…

Using numerous small allusions to TC, Spenser situates himself within the English literary canon through a strategy of association with an "uncouthe, unkiste" Chaucer.

Olson describes the visual features of the Ellesmere manuscript and assesses its illustrations as schematic, metonymic, and stereotypic-representations of character types rather than realizations of fictional individuals. The juxtaposition of Th and…

Guardia Massó examines ecclesiastical and sexual suppression in Lollardy, "Piers Plowman," and CT (especially in WBP).

Includes seven essays that pertain to Chaucer. For these essays, search for Marges/Seuils under Alternative Title.

Like Chaucer, Margery Kempe constructs a narrative context for the self she creates. Kempe uses autobiographical details to shape "Margery" into a representative type and to analyze communal values and practices. Kempe employs Chaucer's strategy of…

Margery has much in common with Alisoun: middle-class status, outspokenness, avid interest in or obsession with sex, devotion to Christianity, and passion for pilgrimages.

Considering the life of Margery Kempe, Takamiya tries to confirm the possibility of existence of such a woman as the Wife of Bath. In Japanese.

Treats Margery Kempe and the Wife of Bath as carnivalesque female figures, although each is "mediated and hence vindicated by a masculine consciousness"--Margery's scribe and Chaucer. Both narrators are characterized by "grotesque realism,"…

Identifies parallels between CT and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," found particularly in the fictional "Historical Notes" that follow the main text of the novel. Notes the echo of Chaucer in Atwood's title and a single reference to Chaucer…

Examines sources that Boxhorn drew upon for quoting GP and for (mis)identifying its author to show that, contrary to what scholars have believed, this seventeenth-century Dutch professor of history and rhetoric "was acquainted with neither Chaucer…

Includes discussion of TC, arguing that the "ironies and games" in the poem "show how closely amorous pursuits may tread to modern conceptions of rape" and depict courtship as a "zero sum game in which each winning move is a loss."

Analyzes the "thematic sexualization of the mappaemundi” in Ros, Shakespeare's "Lucrece," and Donne's "Weeping," providing interpretive background for the imagery, explaining the poets' familiarity with T-O maps, and exploring the range of…

Driver examines John Speed's portrait of Chaucer (first printed version, Speght 1598) as a representation of "Elizabethan nationalism" and an emblem of Chaucer's reception. She also discusses Speed's career as a cartographer and historian and…

Burger follows Gilles Deleuze and Féliz Guattari in associating "mapping" with modernity, resistance, and queerness and associating "tracing" with medieval times, hegemony, and heterosexuality. Explores how Mel can be seen to "map" Melibee's…

Chaucer's lyrics have been neglected not because Chaucer was an incompetent lyric poet but because they have been overshadowed by his narrative poetry. Ruud introduces the lyrics to those not familiar with them, providing a separate "reading" of…

Surveys extant manuscripts of CT, including collections that include standalone tales. Discusses the difference in manuscript presentation and frequency of the tales, arguing that earlier manuscript production and circulation often privileged those…

Reviews Derek Brewer's editorial work on Malory and Chaucer. Mentions Brewer's unpublished projects, including the "Nelson Chaucer," that affected the "textual authority" of Middle English scholarship.

Summarizes the “textual world” of the late-medieval England and describes the international development of the printing press. Comments on references to literacy and literate materials in Chaucer's works, explores the implications of Adam, remarks…

Discusses manuscripts containing Chaucer's love lyrics, apocryphal and authentic, including poems extracted from longer works.

Essays from the 1985 Conference at the University of York.

Horobin describes recent advances in understanding "late medieval textual culture"--reading habits, book ownership, institutional affiliations, etc.--focusing on the œuvres of several Chaucerian scribes, discussions of locale and provenance,…

Nine essays, an Introduction, and Response derive from a 1981 Conference at the University of York. For the two essays that include substantial attention to Chaucer, search for Manuscripts and Readers in Fifteenth-Century England under Alternative…