Surveys recent discussions of the editing of medieval texts, calling for a consistent and sensitive concern for authorial intention, however evasive. Shows how manuscripts of CT and TC reflect Chaucer's likely revision of his works and how such…
Recent critical theory emphasizes reading from the margins to interrogate problematic "master narratives." When one teaches Chaucer to undergraduates, however, such interrogation may become "naturalized" as a new master narrative for…
Boboc, Andreea D., ed.
Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2015.
Collection of essays exploring "legal personhood vis-à-vis the jurisdictional conflicts" of late medieval England. For an essay pertaining to Chaucer, search for Theorizing Legal Personhood in Late Medieval England under Alternative Title.
Kirk, Jordan.
Dissertation Abstracts International A75.03 (2014): n.p.
Introduces medieval theory of human voice and nonsense tracing its roots in Aristotle and Boethius, its tradition in medieval logic, and its impact on "The Cloud of Unknowing" and HF. In HF "Chaucer revises academic theories of 'vox' into a theory of…
Considers the role of the nonsense word as "material supposition"; as prayer; and, in HF, as "tydynges" (rumors), which allows the previously mute poet to speak.
Wimsatt, James I.
Mediaevalia 15 (1993, for 1989): 231-39.
Conventional source-and-analogue criticism of CT and TC, in particular, can be enhanced by concepts and taxonomies of intertextuality, especially the systems introduced by Gerard Genette and Manfred Pfister.
Fifield, Merle.
Muncie Ind.: Ball State University, 1973.
Seeks objective analysis of the "oral-aural" aspects of word stress and metrical stress in Chaucer's "stress system," commenting on linguistic borrowings, affixing, grammatical function, phonetic juncture, and the difficulties of inferring Middle…
Briggs, Frederick M.,and Laura L. Howes.
Medium Aevum 65 (1996): 269-79.
MilT develops the theme of "pryvetee," which in Chaucer refers to both human genitalia and divine secrets. Echoes of Exodus and its tradition of commentary reinforce the theme and enable Chaucer to suggest an orientation of the "Tale" as a…
Gallagher, Joseph E.
Chaucer Review 7.1 (1972): 44-66.
Reads TC as a sinful poetic act, acknowledged as such by Chaucer in Ret (CT 10.1086). Passionate love and Christian love are "irreconcilable" in the poem, and from the Proem of Book 3 forward, Chaucer employs an "intensifying program of disguise" of…
PardT, ParsT, and Ret all treat the moral complexities of language. Applying a text from Timothy, quoted by both the Pardoner and the Parson, reveals that the Pardoner's discourse is barrren; the Parson's fruitful. Ret is the fruit of ParsT.
Kuczynski, Michael P
Chaucer Review 45 (2011): 321-39.
More critical attention to the codicological contexts, Latin sources, rhetorical devices, and clerical "authorial milieu" of Middle English lyrics would release them from the categories of the "practical or boring," and give their refinement and…
Wetherbee, Winthrop.
Alan T. Gaylord, ed. Essays on the Art of Chaucer's Verse (New York and London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 283-95.
The "seeming eccentricities" in the verse of BD are an index to the poem's "complex intention." Close reading demonstrates how variations in verse communicate "the delicate psychological process the poem describes."
Downing, Angela.
Teresa Fanego Lema, ed. Papers from the IVth International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval Language and Literature (Santiago de Compostela: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 1993), pp. 55-76.
Linguistic analysis of Chaucer's syntactical techniques in GP.
Explores "the complex thematic and structural functions" of the Pluto-Proserpina episode in MerT, treating it as a fit denouement in the traditional pear-tree plot, and arguing that it deepens the unifying thematic dimensions of the Tale by…
Peck, Russell A.
Alastair Fowler, ed. Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis (New York: Barnes and Noble; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970), pp. 73-115.
Describes parallels in plot and structure between BD and Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," arguing that Chaucer depicts a partial glimpse of full consolation. Identifies how "numerological composition" underlies the structure of BD and how…
Tallies Chaucer's varieties of word-play and explores their thematic value in relation to his concern with the interconnectedness of pilgrimage and play. Focuses on rhetorical tradition, play on "child" in PrT, the unity of SqT and FranT, and the…
Duder, Clyburn.
Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (1981): 4707A.
Contains a glossary of all saints referred to in CT, with notes relating them to medieval art, plus commentary on fourteen associated with Reeve, Wife of Bath, and Pardoner or named in FrT, SumT, and CYT.
Hatton, Thomas J.
Studies in Medieval Culture 4 (1974): 452-58.
The Squire's concupiscence and selfishness contrast with the Knight's love of chivalric virtues. Through the Squire and his tale Chaucer may be suggesting that the knights of Richard II's court return to the values represented by his own perfect…
Glancy, Ruth.
Westport, Conn.; and London:: Greenwood, 2002.
Glancy surveys twenty-nine themes (some with sub-themes) in British poetry, describing their occurrence from the late Middle Ages to the present. Topics include beauty, death, love, old age, sleep, and war. Glancy summarizes Chaucer's Marriage Group…
Identifies a "significant continuity of thought" in BD, HF, and PF: "their shared concern" with Nature and Fortune as principles of order and fertility, on the one hand, and disorder on the other. Traces the roots of these concerns in Boethius, Alain…
