Uses two of the "modes of existence" theorized by Bruno Latour--technological and fictional--to examine medieval manuscripts, arguing that the "affordances and ecologies" of codices as technology encouraged the "proliferation" of fictional beings in…
Davis, P. J., ed.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
The introduction to this edition of Valerius includes a section on "The Later Middle Ages: Benoit, Guido, Chaucer, and Boccaccio," discussing whether or not "medieval writers were familiar with Valerius Flaccus." Demonstrates that, although Chaucer…
Cawsey, Kathy.
Images of Language in Middle English Vernacular Writings (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2020), pp. 13-43.
Argues that in its adaptations of poetic traditions (particularly representations of the four elements and "ars grammatica") and in dealing "explicitly with the problematics of language and poetry," HF is "almost an anti-'ars-poetica'.” In it,…
Combines a biography of Benedictine astronomer John Westwyk with contextualizing information about medieval science, technology, education, and innovation, particularly in the monastic settings of St. Albans Abbey and its Tynemouth Priory. Credits…
Gellert, Anamaria Ramona.
Journal of the Early Book Society 23 (2020): 101-39; 7 b&w illus.
Discusses the Virtues and Vices miniatures that accompany ParsT in Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.4.27, as they relate to Chaucer's text, in the "context ofmtheir wider medieval iconographic tradition" and the "imagery of affective meditation."…
Explores the reception of John Gower as an alchemist in the sixteenth century, including description of Elias Ashmole's notion that Gower was Chaucer's "master" and "mentor" in alchemical science.
Schaefer, Ursula.
Anna Kathrin Bleuler and Manfred Kern, eds. Poesie des Widerstreits: Etablierung und Polemik in den Literaturen des Mittelalters (Heidelberg: Winter, 2020), pp. 271-98.
Shows not only that Th is a send-up of the tail-rhyme romance and its conventions, but that the poem's metadiscursive horizon of expectation, established by means of the characterization of Chaucer the Pilgrim, resonates in the tale and reveals…
Wicher, Andrzej.
Iudaica Russica 1.4 (2020): 102-14.
Compares the antisemitism in the three works, describing the Jews of PrT as "an undistinguished mass with no face, and no individuality, a mass that can instinctively react, if given a chance, against their Christian neighbour"; they are less…
Wallace, Andtew.
The Presence of Rome in Medieval and Early Modern Britain: Texts, Artefacts and Beliefs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 172-218.
In Wallace's volume dedicated to examining various aspects of the importance of Rome and the Latin language--classical and Christian--in early British culture, this chapter focuses on their roles in theorizing and depicting relations between living…
Combines neighbor theory with Pauline notions of debt, payment, and the "dual commandment" to love God and neighbor, exploring usury, neighborly obligation, Christian-Jewish proximity, and market economy in "The Childe of Bristowe" and PrT--found…
Graver, Bruce.
Wordsworth Circle 52 (2020): 92-103.
Argues that Wordsworth chose to publish his translation of PrT "for a very simple reason: he wanted to give an example of close translation of Chaucer, and it was the only one ready and unobjectionable." However, various critics found the translation…
Recounts personal experiences of studying PrT and its reception as a prelude to examining the role and status of medieval studies in twenty-first-century British educational culture, particularly its inequalities, colonialisms, and appropriations,…
Maguire, Laurie.
Rory Loughnane and Andrew J. Power, eds. Early Shakespeare 1588–1594 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 121-46.
Explores relations between Franklin--the tale-telling character of "Arden of Faversham"--and Chaucer’s Franklin as narrator of FranT, concentrating on scenes in the play attributed to Shakespeare, and focusing on the "subject matter and literary…
Argues that Chaucer uses philosophical language in describing the fart joke of SumT in order to burlesque the "logical thinking" of scholastic thinkers, particularly the Merton Calculators, showing how literature can "more effectively" work out…
Hanna, Ralph.
Journal of the Early Book Society 23 (2020): 141-73.
Investigates the "material conditions" that underlie the fictional book of "wikked wyves" described in WBP, 669-73, analyzing extant manuscripts that "most closely resemble Jankyn's volume" and have other Chaucerian and Oxonian associations. Explores…
Cawsey, Kathy.
Ada S. Jaarsma and Kit Dobson, eds. Dissonant Methods: Undoing Discipline in the Humanities Classroom (Edmonton: University of Alberta, 2020), pp. 33-49.
Exemplifies the theory and practice of "evental pedagogy," describing the classroom experience of teaching WBPT in the context of a "scandal" and "media uproar" at Dalhousie University (Halifax) in 2015. Comments on rape, "restorative justice"” and…
Suggests that in medieval literature generally the "motif of crossing a body of water was regularly perceived as an epistemological operation of a physical and a spiritual kind," and explores the notion in several narratives, including MLT, examining…
Uses a "political theology of the refugee as neighbor" to explore contiguities between "Refugee Tales" (2016) and CT. Explicates nuances of "tendre/"tender" in the works and examines the absent presence of Theban refugees in KnT. The Knight "edits…
North, Richard.
Carlos Prado-Alonso and Rodrigo Pérez Lorido, eds. Of ye Olde Englisch Langage and Textes: New Perspectives on Old and Middle English Languages and Literature (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2020), pp. 301-22.
Reconstructs a career for the Knight, based on the GP description and details from KnT, MkT, and historical sources. Maintains that Chaucer had met the Knight, perhaps in France, and that the Knight was some fifteen years younger than usually…
Reads aspects of Theseus's stadium, tournament, and funeral arrangements in KnT as "performance of power" in response to the procession of his "regional rivals": Arcite and Palamon of Thebes, Emetreus of India, and Lygurge of Thrace. George…
Vial, Claire.
Jean-Pierre Naugrette and Catherine Lanone, eds. Le temp qu’il fait dans la littérature et les artes du monde anglophone / What’s the Weather Like in Anglophone Literature and Art (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2020), pp. 57-70.
Examines "inner and outer landscapes in relation with the seasons" in three works of medieval literature, including articulation of the aesthetic pleasure evoked at the beginning of GP, effected through Chaucer's thematic range and use of "every…
Stanisoara, Codruta Mirela.
Philologia: Naučno-stručni časopis za jezik, književnost i kulturu/Academic Journal for Language, Literature and Culture 18 (2020): 97-107.
Advocates an "anthropological" approach to reading Chaucer's works, especially CT, in which the reader observes the writer's roles as not only poet, narrator, and social historian, but also an anthropologist who crosses borders and invites us to…
Otaño Gracia, Nahir I.
English Language Notes 58.2 (2020): 35-49.
Includes the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in conceptualizing the global North Atlantic, and argues that in several places in CT (e.g., GP description of Knight, MLT, Pedro in MkT) Chaucer uses paradigms that are similar to those of "settler…
Discusses pre-World War II state of medieval studies, its pro-Germanic/Nordic focus, and the academy's anti-Mediterraneanism. Argues that this period saw significant changes in the field, including a shift toward more interdisciplinary approaches and…
Investigates the "agency and influence of medieval queens" by comparing the careers of the English queens Philippa of Hainault and Anne of Bohemia and the "almost queen" Joan of Kent. Examines patronage and intercession and explores the extent to…
