Ramson, W. S.
A. P. Treweek, ed. Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association 1969. Proceedings and Papers of the Twelfth Congress Held at the University of Western Australia, 5-11 February 1969 ([Sydney]: AULLA, 1970), pp, 456-76..
Accepts that much fifteenth-century admiration of Chaucer praises his rhetoric and "ornate eloquence," but explores comments that convey wider, more sophisticated appreciation of his stylistic range and philosophical depth, considering comments by…
Kobayashi, Yoshiko.
Martha Driver, Derek Pearsall, and R. F. Yeager, eds. John Gower in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020), pp. 231–46.
Considers why Gower's verse-epistle “In Praise of Peace” was included in William Thynne's 1532 edition of Chaucer’s works and explores possible motives and collaborations in the process of editing the poem and the volume.
Haught, Leah.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 114 (2015): 240-60.
The Middle English romance "Amis and Amiloun" explores the complex concept of "trewth" in the fourteenth century. This essay contends that the binding oath made by childhood friends is reminiscent of the agreement of the GP pilgrims, as well as…
In the Middle Dutch "Wrake van Ragisel" (adapted from the Old French "Vengeance Raguisel"), "Walewein, who is transformed into a dwarf, learns what women are exclusively led by their sexual desire," a different answer to the life question than is…
Rissanen, Matti.
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 31 (1997): 237-48.
Compares Bo with the versions by "Alfred," Walton (1410), Colville (1556), "I. T." (1609), and Preston (1695), tracing the assimilation of sophisticated Latin terminology into English discourse.
Brookhouse, Christopher.
Larry D. Benson, ed. The Learned and the Lewed: Studies in Chaucer and Medieval Literature. Harvard English Studies, no. 5 (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974), pp. 67-80.
Appreciative comments on BD, HF, TC, and CT, addressing their concerns with death, isolation, knowledge of self, and above all, the hman need for self-disclosure in confronting these concerns. The human need for narrative is particularly evident in…
Bronson, Bertrand H.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960.
Engages several critical approaches to Chaucer works and incorporates them into appreciative commentaries, with particular attention to the poet's "habit of working" or process of composition, his narrative techniques (not inorganic, but…
Rex, Richard.
Massachusetts Studies in English 8 (1982): 20-32.
Among the hitherto unrevealed examples of subtle bawdy humor in Chaucer's poetry are many in KnT. These provide suggestive commentary on the Knight's character. The Miller's values probably come closer to Chaucer's own sentiments than do those…
The character Malyne, more complex than her fabliau antecedents, adds an ambiguous subplot to RvT. Emphasizing disorder, the subplot undercuts the theme of "retribution" in the main storyline.
Hines, Jessica N.
Dissertation Abstracts International A78.09 (2017): n.p.
Considers how Chaucer (in ClT, LGW, and ParsT) develops the concept of pity from European sources, and privileges the concept in English literary discourse.
Dane, Joseph A.
Ian Gadd and Alexandra Gillespie, eds. John Stow (1525-1605) and the Making of the English Past: Studies in Early Modern Culture and the History of the Book (London: British Library), pp. 145-55.
Traces Stow's declining reputation among eighteenth- and nineteenth-century editors of Chaucer as well as a gradual revival of appreciation of Stow's edition, first among bibliophiles and later with modern Chaucerians. Dane examines the variants in…
Kiser, Lisa Jean.
Dissertation Abstracts International 39 (1979): 4275A.
LGWP reveals the God of Love's misreading of TC and Rom. The stories that follow must be read with Alceste's self-sacrifice and resurrection in mind. With Alceste's powers of "translatio," the sinful pagan lovers rise again to live in Christian…
Wolfe, Alexander Carlos.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.12 (2010): n.p.
Explores Western medieval accounts of the Mongols in the context of historic antipathy between "agricultural" societies and their "pastoral"/nomadic rivals. Includes comparative assessments of hunting practices (as seen in BD, "Sir Gawain and the…
Includes brief comments on MilT as an example of "a carnival-like rejection of hierarchies," aligning it with Alenca Zupančič's theory that "comedy creates what we understand 'human' to be."
Mitchell, J. Allan.
Myra Seaman, Eileen A. Joy, and Nicola Masciandaro, eds. Dark Chaucer: An Assortment (Brooklyn, N. Y.: Punctum Books, 2012), pp. 91-102.
Demonstrates how the resolution of FranT turns on so much semantic play with "fre" that the ending itself remains unresolved or "fre."
Bisson, Lillian M.
Medieval Perspectives 7 (1992): 19-33.
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…
Kao, Wan-Chuan.
New Literary History 52 (2021): 535-61.
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…
Di Profio, Luana.
Encyclopaideia: Journal of Phenomenology and Education 26 (2022): 1-13.
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…
Sadlack, Erin A.
Dissertation Abstracts International 66 (2005): 1782A
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.
Keil, Aphrodite M.
Dissertation Abstracts International A70.12 (2010): n.p.
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…
Warren, Nancy Bradley.
Paul Strohm, ed. Middle English (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 369-85.
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.
Benson, C. David.
Chaucer Review 19 (1985): 100-09.
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).
