Browse Items (16012 total)

Surveys relations between female literary characters and labyrinths from mythic accounts to Lady Mary Worth's "Pamphilia to Amphilanthus," commenting on Virgil's "Aeneid," Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," Dante's "Commedia," WBPT, and the…

The keywords to determine Theseus's roles in KnT are "lord," "governour," "conquerour," "hunter," "servant," and "judge." Theseus is analogous to Mars, Venus, and Diana, as "conquerour," "servant," and "hunter," symbolized in his construction of the…

Assesses Theseus in KnT as a character who is capable of anger, self-centeredness, pity, reason, restraint, and charity, considering him in light of Boethian philosophy and Boccaccio's characterization of Teseo in the "Teseida." Central to Chaucer's…

Greenwood examines the meaning of "manly" as applied to the character of Theseus in KnT.

A universal theme of metamorphosis, compelled or voluntary, relates to both the natural mutability of human life and the boundaries and hierarchies set by society, as shown in four texts ranging from KnT (Actaeon) through Gower's Ovidian passages,…

Briefly surveys the history of medieval nunneries, the typical responsibilities of a prioress, and critical attitudes toward the Prioress and PrT.

Includes thirteen New Historicist essays as examples of "practical theory," discussing how various historical and literary texts can be seen to reveal more than they say. Topics include legal proceedings, various aspects of Lollardy, John Capgrave's…

Surveys eighteenth-century translations of portions of Chaucer's CT, examining Ogle's translation of ClT as an example in which the translator adapted the original to contemporary taste. Ogle's Walter and Griselda are a couple with human feelings…

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…

Discursive bibliography of theoretical approaches to Middde English literature published in 2019, including studies of the works of Chaucer.

A discursive bibliography of Middle English studies with various theoretical emphases; includes studies of Chaucer and his works

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.

Medieval optical theory recognized two types of mirrors, one aiding vision and the other inverting images.

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.

Surveys interrelated attitudes toward the "status and function of poetry" in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe, limning poetry's exalted status in the Parisian schools and in the writings of Roger Bacon and Alberto Mussato, and exemplifying…

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.

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…

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…

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.

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…

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."

Linguistic analysis of Chaucer's syntactical techniques in GP.