Irvin, Matthew W.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 4 (2020): 379-96.
Examines pity and the construction of pity in KnT in particular to show how Chaucer's use of and changes to the "Teseida "produce a desire for female autonomy that doesn’t threaten male patriarchy.
Thompson, Kenneth J.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 1 (2020): 55-69.
Corrects errors in the discussion of the Knight's Yeoman in criticism by offering a discussion of the Yeoman and his weapons in GP, and “contextualizes the peacock fletching of the Yeoman's arrows by explicating birdwing anatomy, the appearance of…
Wright, Sarah Breckenridge.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020.
Explores "expressions of mobility" in the frame narrative and tales of CT to show how physical and metaphorical mobilities are shaped by "geographical, ecological, sociopolitical, and gendered identities."
Examines marital rape across CT, acknowledging that, while marital rape was impossible in medieval English law, it was a topic discussed and handled throughout CT. Gives particular attention to MerT, SNT, MkT, WBPT, and ShpT.
Offers comprehensive introduction to CT, focusing on language, genres, forms, historical background, and critical history related to Chaucer. Provides exercises, strategies, and ideas for teaching Chaucer in undergraduate courses.
Murchison, Krista A.
Modern Language Review 115, no. 3 (2020): 497-517.
Argues that audience-based lines of interpretation are no more reliable than author-based loci of interpretation, and reviews the "ars predicandi", religious guides, and the "ars poetica" (literary works), analyzing "how writer and actual audiences…
McLaughlin, Becky Renee.
Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.
Uses psychoanalysis as a "pedagogical tool" to understand Chaucer’s pilgrims in CT. Begins with the "spectacle of hysteria" to explore "ways that conflicts with the Oedipal law erupt on the body and in language" in CT. Discusses "perversions of…
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…
Explores why Chaucer sets CT in April, rather than the traditional month of May, and concludes that the disruption of expectations leads the reader to reflect and realize the tales are a mix of the secular and the sacred.
Blandeau, Agnès.
Isabelle Fernandes, ed. Martyr et martyre: Dans la Chrétienté de l’Europe occidentale, du Moyen Age jusqu’au début du XVIIe siècle (Clermont-Ferrand: Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, 2020), pp. 85-04.
Includes references to GP, MLT, SNT, ClP, PrT, and FrT.
Traces the readership of Chaucer in China, offering analyses of texts and translations available and frequency of Chaucer's verse in university curricula. Ties this readership to various factors, including interest, social context, and history.
Staley, Lynn.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020.
Concentrates on Anne of Bohemia, Chaucer and the trinity, and the figure of the medieval merchant: "three 'offices' of the active life as they underpin Chaucer's growing understanding of the relationship between individuals and their communities.”
Rogers, Will, and Christopher Michael Roman, eds.
Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2020.
Discusses medieval English, French, and Latin sources and offers directions for discovering queerness by connecting these texts to recent developments in queer theory, including queer phenomenology and queer failure. For two essays pertaining to…
Argues that Christian and pagan acts of prayer in Chaucer's works are fundamental to understanding his creative piety. Chaucer’s literary representations of prayer are collaborative and participatory "scripts" that involve the reader in the sacred…
Magnani, Roberta,
McAvoy, Liz Herbert
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 42 (2020): 311-24.
Posits a "radical revisioning of canon formation . . . made possible by positioning women as queering agents," and discloses the "female-coded discourses of spirituality and literacy embedded" in KnT. Reads the romance against "The Booke of Gostlye…
Miles, Laura Saetveit.
Watt, Diane..
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 42 (2020): 285-93.
Introduces the six essays in this cluster, clarifying distinctions between literary canon formation and literary archive, with particular attention to women's devotional writing and reading in Middle English. For an essay that pertains to Chaucer,…
Lears, Adin E.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020.
Connects noise and knowing and unknowing in late medieval English literature. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss HF and WBT respectively, suggesting how Chaucer's texts "present lay uses of language as noise."
Stanbury, Sarah.
Glenn D. Burger and Rory C. Critten, eds. Household Knowledges in Late-Medieval England and France (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020), pp. 129-53.
Focuses on "household music" and the "intermingled melodies of birdsong and . . . musical instruments" in ManT. Argues that ManT can be analyzed as a "poignant record of the vibrant household world filled with music and song" that is connected to…
Burger, Glenn D., and Rory C. Critten, eds.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020.
Focuses on a variety of late medieval households and argues that there is "a dynamic and reciprocal relationship between domestic experience and its forms of cultural expression" and cultural production. For an essay that pertains to Chaucer, search…
Parsons, Ben.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 119 (2020): 380-98.
Reveals how the common, generally lower-class forenames in the "Visio Anglie" portion of Gower's "Vox clamantis" reinforce the "degraded, bestial character" that Gower attributes to the rioters of 1381. Because the names could apply to animals or to…
Machan, Tim William.
Chaucer Review 55, no. 3 (2022): 317-26.
Traces the definition and history of "knarre' in GP, cataloguing evidence for both a Dutch and Old Norse etymology. Offers some considerations for the role of the lexicographer and historian in general by addressing the particular history and meaning…
Yager, Susan.
Once and Future Classroom 16, no. 1 (2020): 1–14.
Offers multiple examples of ways to play with the scansion of Chaucer's verse as means to engage student interest, nuanced readings, and enjoyment. Examples include scenes of awakening, bird-talk in HF and NPT, and wedding celebration in MLT and WBT,…
Fruoco, Jonathan.
Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020
Argues that Chaucer's work "contributed to the birth of English polyphonic verse," a claim supported through discussions of Mikhail Bakhtin and the growth of scholasticism, debate, and music. Connects Chaucer's verse, including BD, HF, TC, and CT, to…
