Fisher, John H.
New York: New York University Press, 1964.
Describes the development of John Gower's critical reputation, his life records, his literary career (including attention to manuscripts, sequence of composition, and revisions), the major social and political themes of his works, and his…
Dutton, Elisabeth, with John Hines and R. F. Yeager, eds.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010.
Twenty-five essays by various authors and an introduction by Dutton, with a cumulative bibliography and index. The volume was inspired by the first international congress of the John Gower Society (2008). The essays range widely in Gower…
Examines the ways in which Gower and Chaucer use their source material differently. Gower uses Ovid to emphasize morality while Chaucer uses Ovid to explore both the courtly and the romantic.
In an analysis of Gower's legal associations, examines how Chaucer uses "jurisprudential topoi" in CT, particularly in SumT. Also discusses law in FrT, PardT, and Mel.
Milosh, Joseph.
Contemporary Literature 19 (1978): 48-57.
Gardner strikingly alters "Beowulf" by granting Grendel spiritual development, by portraying the absurdity of war, and by undercutting the validity of poetic making. The changes transforms epic material into an elusive genre characterized by its…
Crocker, Holly A.
New Medieval Literatures 15 (2015, for 2013): 149-82.
Argues that John Foxe's chronological techniques, "expressive affinities," and "affective connections" in "Actes and Monuments" (a.k.a. the "Book of Martyrs") are "relevant to what is increasingly called 'post-historicist' criticism in medieval…
Boro, Joyce.
Mary Ellen Lamb and Valerie Wayne, eds. Staging Early Modern Romance: Prose Fiction, Dramatic Romance, and Shakespeare (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 188-202.
Includes comments on Fletcher's sources for his "Women Pleased": WBT and "Grisel y Mirabella" by Juan de Flores.
Relates the GP portraits to the philosophy of realism expressed by Scotus and Peirce. Chaucer's realism is especially like Peirce's in its emphasis on behavior, historical coordinates, and the use of lively action or dynamic process to define the…
Winstead, Karen A.
Chaucer Review 30 (1996): 389-400.
Though Capgrave's "Life of St. Katherine" does not mention Chaucer or his characters and does not quote from Chaucer's texts, it bears a marked similarity to the technique of TC. Capgrave seems interested in issues raised by Chaucer but not, like…
Conlee, John W.
American Notes and Queries 12.9-10 (1974): 137-38.
Tallies similarities between RvT and a section in John Barth's novel "Sot-Weed Factor" that indicate direct influence: cast of characters, setting, straying-horse motif, etc.
A heretofore unrecognized reference to KnT in the "Index Britanniæ Scriptorum," compiled by sixteenth-century antiquarian John Bale, provides evidence of a lost manuscript containing Hoccleve's "Regiment of Princes" plus at least Chaucer's KnT and…
Astell, Ann W.
Raymond-Jean Frontain and Jan Wojcik, eds. Old Testament Women in Western Literature (Conway, Ark.: UCA Press, 1991), pp. 92-107.
Gregory's Moralia in Job not only associates Job's wife with Eve as the archetypal temptress but also links her voice to the feminine speaking of poetry, with its imagistic power to move, delight, and (mis)instruct. Chaucer refashions her in CT in…
Astell, Ann W.
Ithaca, N.Y.; and London: Cornell University Press, 1994.
In the Middle Ages, Job was regarded as a figure comparable to the heroes of classical epic, prompting allegorical readings of Job that parallel allegorical readings of works by Homer,Virgil, and Boethius. Astell traces the tradition of treating Job…
Collette, Carolyn P.
Chaucer Review 33: 350-62, 1999.
Although Chaucer's "circle" has generally been considered wholly masculine, it may well have included contemporary women such as Joan of Kent. Joan was a prosperous and powerful woman, an interceder and a mediator: a model for a character such as…
Comprises nineteen pedagogical essays in English, history, philosophy, theater, and Judaic studies by various authors who participated in a series of NEH research seminars conducted between 2003 and 2014. The introduction by the editors addresses…
Blurton, Heather, and Hannah Johnson.
Miriamne Ara Krummel and Tison Pugh, eds. Jews in Medieval England:Teaching Representations of the Other (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 87-100.
Applies Freudian-based neighboring theory to PrT, comparing it with several medieval exempla about Jews, and explaining how such comparisons can help students to see the necessity of interpretation in determining affection and prejudice, crime and…
Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 27 (2005): 129-69
Compiles evidence for the presence of Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians in late medieval England, using as sources public records, sermons, and toponyms. Chaucer likely had significant contact with non-Christians--or recently converted…
Carruthers, Leo, and Adrian Papahagi, eds.
Paris : Harmattan, 2005.
Eleven articles in French and English by various authors exploring the themes of youth and age in Old and Middle English literature. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Jeunesse et vieillesse under Alternative Title.
Holloway, Julia Bolton.
New York: AMS Press, 1998.
Ten essays and a personal testimony by the author on the interrelated topics of pilgrimage and exile in works from Homer and Plato to James Joyce. Focuses on the Middle Ages, with essays on female saints and mystics, "Song of Roland," Dante,…
Schildgen, Brenda Deen.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 15 (1993):111-30.
Chaucer's concern with interpretive variety reflects the concern with open-ended hermeneutics in Jerome's "Prefaces," part of the Wycliffite Bible. Despite Jerome's efforts to restrict exegetical flexibility, and in response to late-medieval…
Hoffman, Richard L.
Chaucer Review 2.1 (1967): 20-31.
Analyzes Chaucer's use and adaptation of the allusion to Jephthah and his daughter in PhyT, arguing that it helps to explain why the Physician's study is "but litel on the Bible" (GP 438), why Chaucer placed PhyT after FranT in the order of the CT (a…
Kline, Daniel T.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 107 (2008): 77-103.
Virginius's fatal encounter with his daughter Virginia in PhyT can be seen as an instance of "torture," as Elaine Scarry defines it, the "most extreme" of political situations. In Scarry's terms and from Virginius's perspective,Virginia's existence…
