Wilson, Janet.
Sandra J. McEntire, ed. Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays. Garland Medieval Casebooks (New York: Garland, 1992), pp. 223-37.
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…
Levelt, Sjoerd.
Notes and Queries 265 (2020): 14-16.
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…
Narver, Annie Lee.
Dissertation Abstracts International A81.02 (2019): n.p.
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."
Beal, Jane.
Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 6.3 (2018): 105-29.
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, Martha W.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 228-49.
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, Glenn.
Robert Myles and David Williams, eds. Chaucer and Language: Essays in Honour of Douglas Wurtele (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001), pp. 61-70 and 198-203.
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…
Horobin, Simon.
Frank Grady, ed. The Cambridge Companion to "The Canterbury Tales" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 21-44
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…
Edwards, A. S. G.
Charlotte Brewer and Barry Windeatt, eds. Traditions and Innovations in the Study of Middle English Literature: The Influence of Derek Brewer (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2013), pp. 201-14.
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.
Gillespie, Alexandra, and Julianna Chianelli.
In The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales. https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu, 2017. Relocated 2025 at https://opencanterburytales.lsusites.org/
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,…
Horobin, Simon.
Susanna Fein and David Raybin, eds. Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches (University Park: PennsylvaniaState University, 2010), pp. 67-82.
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,…
Pearsall, Derek, ed.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1983
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…
Cayley, Emma, and Susan Powell, eds.
Liverpool, Liverpool niversity Press, 2013.
Foreward by Derek Pearsall. Essays address issues of packaging, presentation, and consumption of manuscripts. Also discusses producers, owners, and readers of manuscripts and early printed books. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for…
Scattergood, John.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006.
Reprints fifteen previously published essays by Scattergood, plus a sixteenth, original essay, "The Copying of Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts" (pp. 21-82). The latter--which discusses the habits and status of medieval scribes, early…
Nakao, Yoshiyuki, and Tadahiro Ikegami.
Koichi Kano, ed. An Invitation to Chaucer’s Cosmos (Tokyo: Yushokan, 2022), pp. 51-91.
Examines readings in CT manuscripts that are not found in most critical editions. Reviews history of textual criticism of CT up to the Riverside edition, with special reference to Ralph Hanna's scholarship. Considers merits of the electronic…
Boffey, Julia, and A. S. G. Edwards.
Corinne Saunders, ed. A Concise Companion to Chaucer (Malden, Mass.; Oxford; and Victoria: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 34-50.
The essay describes the "complex exercises in historical reconstruction" essential to bridge the distance between modern readers and Chaucer and his contemporary audience. Discusses Chaucer's literary production, his revisions, and scribal…
Gillespie, Alexandra.
Marion Turner, ed. A Handbook of Middle English Studies (Chichester: Wiley, 2013), pp. 171-85. 1 b&w fig.
Assesses relations between the "idealizing tendencies" of formalist literary studies and the practicalities of studies in book history, reading PF as a "Chaucerian theory of the book" that is similar to the theory of Maurice Blanchot. Explores how a…
Boenig, Robert, and Kathleen Davis, eds.
Lewisburg, Penn. :
Eleven essays by various authors, a bibliography of Bolton's publications, and an index. For four essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon under Alternative Title.
Interrogates the "ghost of judgment" that haunts the study of Chaucerian manuscripts as well as formalist analysis of Chaucer's works, commenting on implications for editing and teaching.
Da Rold, Orietta.
Essays and Studies 63 (2010): 43-58.
Suggests that analysis of the physical makeup of manuscripts is a way to understand the production and use of Middle English texts. Focuses on the multilingualism in texts, the different functions of texts in a single book, and scribal output.…
The eight manuscript portraits of Chaucer and the three of Hoccleve are described. Those of Chaucer in Ellesmere and Harley 4866 are possibly independent copies of a common ancestor, now lost. All other portraits of Chaucer depend on their…
The introduction treats contents, date, material and structure, ruling, layout and presentation of texts, handwriting, punctuation, correction and annotation, decoration, binding, and the history of the volume bequeathed to Magdalen College by Samuel…
