Medieval vernacular literature, which inherits and deeply re-elaborates themes and modes of Latin culture, is at the origin of "European" literary production. Italy followed soon after France in establishing a vernacular literary tradition, anchored…
Examines law and literature in the works of Chaucer, Gower, and Langland, focusing on three major topics: marriage, crime, and covenants. An introductory chapter explores the relations between law and literature. Throughout, there is comparison of…
The open-ended frame of CT derives ultimately from Indo-European rather than Arabic aesthetic; Arabic influence on medieval Europe is nonetheless significant.
The "fragmentary state" of CT and its lack of definitive ending may reflect external circumstances, yet its "open-endedness" may be part of its structural plan.
Carruthers, Mary (J.)
Journal of Narrative Technique 2 (1972): 208-14.
Argues that FrT and SumT "explore the question of true meaning in far-reaching ways." Concerned with "externals" only, the Friar's summoner ignores intention, while the Friar himself (a "false glossator" though described as worthy) "cannot properly…
In her essay Gittes overemphasizes generalizations about Arabic mathematics, architecture, and literature, especially its "atomization" into component units.
"Glossa Ordinaria" and NPT demonstrate the medieval tendency to accompany a base text with another, more interpretive one, generating further discourse, discouraging closure, and resulting in compound, sometimes conflicting, interpretations or…
Focuses on Ovid’s post-exilic poem "Ibis," now nearly forgotten in scholarship but once central to medieval readers. Catalogues the extant manuscripts of Ibis and compares this to the higher number of mentions in manuscript inventories, before…
Wuertz, Carol.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 146-57.
Argues that the "message" of WBPT is that all individuals are to be valued.
Dixon, Chris Jennings, ed.
Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 2007.
Seventy-five lesson plans for teaching writing to high school students, arranged in seven categories: Writing Process, Portfolios, Literature, Research, Grammar, Writing on Demand, and Media. Two of the plans for writing about literature focus on…
Case, Linda.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 186-202.
Description of proposed classroom activities for high school study of GP.
Hefling, Carol.
[Jay Ruud, ed.] Papers on the "Canterbury Tales": From the 1989 NEH Chaucer Institute, Northern State University, Aberdeen, South Dakota ([Aberdeen, S.D.: Northern State University, 1989), pp. 247-52.
Presents in outline form materials for a unit on medieval history for the high school classroom, incorporating suggestions or using selections from CT.
Alamichel, Marie-Françoise.
Bulletin des Anglicistes Médiévistes 58: 5-37, 2000.
Examines medieval English widows. While Old English literature shows a general lack of interest in marriage and widowhood, Middle English literature is rich in various forms of testimonies. None of the widows surveyed shows true sorrow after the…
Dauby, Helene.
Leo Carruthers, ed. La ronde des saisons: Les saisons dans la litterature et la societe anglaises au Moyen Age (Paris: Presses Universitaires de Paris-Sorbonne, 1998), pp. 101-10.
Examines the diet of the poor widows in CT and the extravagant menus of the Franklin, the numerous recipes in "Le menagier de Paris," and "The Boke of Nurture" by John Russell.
Blandeau, Agnès.
Martine Yvernault and Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet, eds. Frères et sœurs: Les liens adelphiques dans l'Occident antique et médiéval. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007, pp. 229-36.
Blandeau examines meanings and connotations of the terms "brother," "brotherly," and "brotherhood" in CT and other medieval texts, from "Beowulf" to Malory's "Le Morte Darthur." Brotherhood ranges widely and can extend to a universal fraternity in a…
Mertens-Fonck, Paule.
Marie-Françoise Alamichel, ed. La complmentarité: Mélanges offerts à Josseline Bidard et Arlette Sancery à l'occasion de leur départ en retraite (SAC 29 [2007], no. 85), pp.177-85.
Two intertwined debates underlie CT: 1) a tension between traditional literature and individualizing contemporary details, and 2) the realist/nominalist debate over universals.
Engel, Claire-Eliane.
Revue des Sciences Humaines 120 (1965): 577-85.
Comments on the historicity and relative chronology of the military campaigns mentioned in the GP description of the Knight, observing how the events are out of sequence and how Chaucer's may have known of them.
Mertens-Fonck, Paule.
Colette Stévanovitch, ed. L'Articulation langue-littérature dans les textes médiévaux anglais. Collection GRENDEL, no. 5 (Nancy: Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 2005), pp. 99-116.
CT reflects the medieval philosophical debate over universals, posing traditional literature in tension with more fully actualised characterization.
