Browse Items (16012 total)

Demonstrates how the resolution of FranT turns on so much semantic play with "fre" that the ending itself remains unresolved or "fre."

Chaucer's and Eco's works appear to be structured as "unicursal labyrinths" but are really based on "multicursal labyrinths" in which no center can be found. Chaucer's aesthetic demonstrates the open quality that Eco finds specific to contemporary…

Examines the "workings of empathy" in SqT to situate it in "premodern critical race studies, reading the "falcon-Canacee-lap" formulation as "a homo-affective assemblage, an animal human thing that blurs the borders of body, object, and species,"…

Visual and verbal guide to the "Pilgrims' Way" between London and Canterbury, documenting the remaining evidence of ancient and medieval archeology, architecture, and topography, and exploring possible side routes and byways where remaining evidence…

Explores "the special connection that exists between travel and narration," especially when traveling in a group, assessing international narratives of travel from CT to Haruki Murakami's “Drive My Car.” Includes an abstract in English and in…

In a larger discussion of women's letter-writing, Sadlack notes that "Ovid, Chaucer, and Gower suggest that letters are often the best means for women to communicate."

Emends the punctuation of CYT 8.1236-39 found in the editions of W. W. Skeat and F. N. Robinson, assigning the enjoinder in the first half of the quotation to the Yeoman's canon and the second half to the Yeoman as narrator.

Discusses dream visions (including HF and "Pearl") and dramas of the period to explore ideas of a "feminized" Christ in the medieval period, ultimately contending that any such feminization is problematic and "no simple affirmation of female bodies…

The "transubstantiation" of the word being made flesh underlies the autobiographical impulse in Julian of Norwich's "Showings," Langland's "Piers Plowman," and Chaucer's HF. Warren also comments on Chaucer's Ret as autobiography.

Chaucer's Man of Law attacks Gower for stories of Canacee and Apollonius, while defending Chaucer for omission of "swich unkynde abhomynacions" (MLP 77-89). Gower sympathizes with but condemns the characters. In Chaucer we have "a less rigidly…

Explores incest motifs in a wide range of medieval texts, exploring origins and analogues. Discusses MLT as an example of the motif of the flight from the incestuous father and comments on incest in LGW (Philomena and Semiramis).

Fictional prequel to the CT, set in 1366, when Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims (many from CT) are involved with a kidnapping and murder plot while traveling to Canterbury.

The "Verginia Story" evolved from Livy to Chaucer in various literary forms, most often the exemplum. Chaucer adapted the story into a novella, developing a new narrative form.

Surveys the connections in classical and Christian literature between incubi and nightmares. Documents the intersections of these traditions in Middle English literature, where such night visitations are more frequent than in Continental literature.…

Offers a close examination of the various ecclesiastical figures in CT and "Piers Plowman" and of the literary techniques used by the two authors to distinguish them. Chaucer's method of characterization concentrates audience interest on the person…

Argues in Chapter 2, "Chaucer's Poetics of the Obscene: Classical Narrative and Fabliau Politics in Fragment One of the "Canterbury Tales" and the "Legend of Good Women" (pp. 76-110), that RvT taps the subversive potential of the fabliau to critique…

"A record of all extant Middle English prose texts composed between c. 1200 and c. 1500 in both manuscript and printed form in medieval and post-medieval versions." Lists texts and editions through 1982.

Discusses representations of individuality in medieval literature, exploring concepts of "singularity" and the Chaucerian notion of "condicioun." Comments on BD, ClT, and the descriptions of the pilgrims in GP, along with a range of medieval works.

Twelve essays by different authors examine the achievements of frequently neglected works, exploring the quality of the poems, their relations to various traditions and genres, and their poetic methods. Brief references to ABC, BD, GP, MilT, and…

Close reading of the speech patterns of the Canterbury pilgrims in the links between the tales, focusing on level of diction (Romance vocabulary), syntax, and figurative language, and relating these features to characterization. Comments at length on…

Distinguishes two kinds of medieval romance hero: those who "are defined by institutional virtues" and those defined by "personal attributes and experiences." Treats characters from various romances, examining Palamon, Arcite, and Theseus of KnT in…

Argues that gaps and "narratorial subversions" make Chaucer's works (and much of medieval aesthetic theory) "postmodern," comparing them with the definition of postmodernism by Ihab Hassan.

Aligns vernacularity with visual and verbal profanity, observing occurrences in MilPT in which Chaucer "indulges in vernacular eschatology" and "moves to suppress it." Heyworth reads the window scene of MilT in light of medieval guides to…

Argues that Chaucerians should assess more explicitly the consequences of critical readings: for instance, interpreting Alison of Bath as a murderer or Criseyde as having an incestuous affair with Pandarus.

Surveys translations and bowdlerizations of The Canterbury Tales from ca. 1870 to the present, identifying variations on the tendency to present the work as morally regulatory or innocent. Focuses on adaptations by Mary (Mrs. H. R.) Haweis, Charles…