Includes commentary on depictions of Islam and Muhammad in MLT and GP: despite the pejorative naming of the Prophet in MLT, GP is "the inaugural English text which set in motion cross-cultural understanding between the West and the Muslim world."
Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate, and Timea Szell, eds.
Ithaca, N. Y: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Adopting a variety of critical approaches, the fourteen essays range from detailed analyses of religious discourse to theoretical inquiries into the forces that shaped ideas of sanctity. Essays discuss representations of sainthood in the Middle…
Explores images and metaphors in various works in Middle English to disclose their "implicit theories of language," with numerous references to Chaucer and his works throughout, including discussion of birdsong as oral language in PF and comparison…
Examines depictions of kingship among the Ricardian poets--Gower, Langland, the Gawain poet, and Chaucer--as reflections of common concerns in a time of turbulence, considering royalty in several of Chaucer's works. In BD, the royal birds are…
Vial, Claire.
Michel Bitot, ed., with Roberta Mullini and Peter Happe. Divers Toyes Mengled: Essays on Medieval and Renaissance Culture in Honour of Andre Lascombes (Tours: Universite Francois Rabelais, 1996), pp. 43-54.
Chaucer's accounts of royal entries in KnT, Anel, MLT, and LGWP indicate how the confluence of historical records and literary practice influenced the idea of kingship in the late Middle Ages.
An introduction to the influence of Christian thought and history on Old and Middle English literatures. A chapter on "Piers Plowman" and CT (pp. 101-38) surveys late-medieval ecclesiastical offices, the theology of salvation, penance and…
Harris, Neil Shettron.
Dissertation Abstracts International 35 (1975): 4429A
The reasons for Chaucer's low reputation in the seventeenth century were as much aesthetic as linguistic. He was a pawn in the battle over enrichment of the language; his works violated the principles of decorum; the medieval genres he used had…
Brewer, D. S.
D. S. Brewer, ed. Chaucer and Chaucerians: Critical Studies in Middle English Literature (University: University of Alabama Press; London: Nelson, 1966), pp. 240-70.
Surveys the reception of Chaucer as a poet, century by century, commenting recurrently on the understanding and appreciation of his rhetoric and meter, humor and moral seriousness, linguistic obscurity, relations with sources, characterization, and…
Considers critical assessments of Chaucer's attitudes toward Arthurian literature in WBT and argues that Chaucer may have known only nontraditional Arthurian materials such as "Libeaus Desconus" and "Sir Perceval of Galles." This notion is…
Violato, Claudio,and Arthur J. Wiley.
Adolescence 25 (1990): 253-64.
Studies images of youth and adolescence in eleven major authors, including Chaucer, showing that adolescence is portrayed as a time of "turbulence, excess, and passion." Chaucer's GP Squire fits the pattern.
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Leigh A. Arrathoon, ed. Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction (Rochester, Mich.: Solaris Press, 1986), pp. 35-62.
The complex meanings of the pear tree are achieved by means of a pervasive ironic technique whereby material with favorable connotations is introduced only to be qualified and undercut at a later stage. Treats biblical and classical sources, lust,…
LGW illustrates the importance of fidelity to one's pledges. Chaucer shows that "act, speech, and writing, when captured by image, text, and imagination, preserve love beyond its transitory moment of existence" (50). The written experiences of the…
Summarizes various problems in dealing with Chaucer's imagery, and examines the imagery in KnT and MilT. In both tales, images tend to "appear in clusters" and they are oftentimes linked in "iterative" patterns to reinforce theme. Considers animal…
Baker, Donald C.
Studia Neophilologica 30 (1958): 17-26.
Demonstrates "the extremely close dove-tailing of the three major sections" of BD "and the way in which they complement and illuminate one another" through parallel incidents and atmosphere. Then examines "the imagery patterns in the poem" to show…
Argues that "through his patterning of imagery Chaucer systematically expressed his doctrine on poetic creativity," i.e., that a poet may "achieve imaginative vision" by "withdrawal into a mental otherworld." In his early dream poems and especially…
Rogers, William Elford.
Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1972.
Prints the text of ABC along with its source, i.e., lines 10,893-11,168 of Guillaume de Guilleville's "Pélèrinage de la Vie Humaine." Discusses ABC as a "direct paraphrase," considering how deviations from the source, particularly in imagery,…
Describes illustrations of CT from the second half of the nineteenth century through 1981, noting that instead of attempting to recapture the Middle Ages as it was, these works reflect the various times in which they were created.
Discusses the "relationship of engravings to narrative" in Eric Gill's woodcuts for the Cockerel Press four-volume edition of CT (1929–31), focusing on its frontispieces and "late or climactic moments in the tales," with b&w illustrations. Comments…
Klitgard, Ebbe.
Literature Compass 15.6 (2018): n.p.
Describes and reproduces sample illustrations from four Danish translations of selections from CT: those by Flemming Bergsøe (1943), illustrated by Poul Christensen; by Lis Thorbjørnsen (1946), illustrated by Ib Spang Olsen; by Jørgen Sonne…
McEntire, Sandra J.
Chaucer Review 31 (1996): 145-63
Aurelius usurps and reinterprets Dorigen's speech. Through such devices, Chaucer subtly makes listeners and readers aware that what may appear to be real, whether concrete or ideological, may be illusion. The Franklin's intent is to assert his…
Frost, Cheryl.
Literature in North Queensland, Australia (James Cook University, North Queensland) 5.1 (1976): 37-45.
Jungian psychological analysis of the character of January, arguing that he shows the characteristics of the introverted type--capacity for abstraction, extreme subjectivity, and a resultant poor grasp of the outside world. January has trouble…
Kee, Kenneth.
English Studies in Canada 1 (1975): 1-12.
The Franklin, not to be identified as Chaucer's spokesman regarding marriage, frequently intrudes into his story in order to present a favorable self image before his listeners. His intrusions also divert his audience from serious moral issues his…
Nolan, Maura.
Robert John Meyer-Lee and Catherine Sanok, eds. The Medieval Literary: Beyond Form (Cambridge: Brewer, 2018), pp. 213-41.
Explores individuality in visual and verbal portraiture, arguing that facial expressions or movements in art--i.e., "the extent to which a given image evokes or represents movement”--are the basis of perceptions of individuality in portraits.…
Hilmo, Maidie.
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Maidie Hilmo, and Linda Olson, eds. Opening up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 2012), pp. 245-89.
Examines illustrations of CT in several manuscripts, including the Hengwrt; Ellesmere; Bodley 686; and Tokyo, MS Takamiya 24 (formerly Devonshire); and portraits of Chaucer, exploring how manuscript illustrations "serve to shape the text and its…
