Browse Items (16370 total)

Interprets the Pardoner as an intersex person, taking his sexuality literally rather than figuratively, a matter of variation rather than lack. Clarifies these concepts in the history of science and the history of Chaucer criticism, and compares the…

A young-adult novel, modeled on CT, in which senior high school students on a bus trip from Canterbury, Connecticut to Washington, D.C. share stories about their awakening sexuality. Characters' names (including the primary narrator, Jeff Chaucer)…

Zarins assesses Gower's and Chaucer's uses of rime riche ("in which rhyme patterns appear identical but diverge in meaning"), focusing on instances in which the device lends seriousness (or mock seriousness) in characters' dialogue. Appends a partial…

Chaucer's use of philosophy, classic and medieval, goes far beyond Boethius. KnT explores order and disorder in terms of scholasticism; TC treats will and determinism in the light of views from Augustine to Bradwardine; and NPT subtly inverts…

Antifeminism is prevalent throughout CT in depictions of women, assumptions about them, and attitudes toward female-male relations. Nevertheless, CT is still considered a "master-piece" of literature, evidence that critics have not completed the work…

CT is startlingly antifeminist ("erschreckend frauenfeindlich") in its depiction of women and of male attitudes toward women. Recent criticism has begun to recognize this antifeminism but has not fully overcome adulation of the author.

Introduces Chaucer and his world, with sections on his life, English history, and culture; the lyrics and short poems; translations and "minor" poems (including TC and the dream visions), and CT, with discussion of manuscripts, the order of the…

Middle English edition of selections from BD (44-61, 270-79, 291-386, 444-576, 805-998), HF (1-65, 111-208, 480-508, 529-604, 711-822, 885-1045, 1110-1213, 1282-1320, 1340-1406), PF (1-210, 302-29, 365-525, 561-637, 666-699), LGW (LGWP-F 29-246 and…

Zaerr explores the concept of "mouvance" (textual variation) as reflected in a performance of "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell," commenting on the process of performance and adaptation and tabulating variants between the manuscript of the…

Describes known examples of late medieval travel writing in English, discussing several ways they might be categorized. Includes commentary on pilgrimage narratives and on CT as a fictional example.

Investigates the relation between "curiositas" (vice-laden seeking of experience or knowledge) and pilgrimage (symbolic devotional journey) as a tension between desire for the physical and spiritual worlds, examining the theological underpinnings of…

Comments on the comic and aural effects of the allusions to Hasdrubales's wife and to Nero in NPT (7.3362-73), focusing on Pertelote and the other female chickens.

Considers the nature, function,and value of the incipits and proems in TC. In French

Focuses on the forms and role of antitheses in MLT.

Explores relations among voice, genre, music, orality, and memorial transmission in "Lay le Freine," "Sir Orfeo," and FranT, including assessment of the ambiguities and Bahktinian polyphony of voices in the GP description of the Franklin's oral…

Explores the meaning of Chaucer's astrolabe and reflects upon medieval England and the English language.

Explores issues of absence, death, exile, silence, orality, and musical performance in "Sir Orfeo" to find connections with FranT. Approaches "Sir Orfeo" as a reflection on how Chaucer depicts the professional art and artists and lay-makers in FranT.

Studies how horse figures function in telling, traveling, and space definition in "Les quatre fils Aymon," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, GP, SqT, and TC.

Explores the connection among name, birth, and personal achievements. The study is based on "Lybeaus Desconus," but also draws on other medieval sources such as HF.

Focuses on the oriental influences on Chaucer's SqT and on his treatment of the marvelous in light of the medieval controversial approach to mechanisms.

Although courtly love, magic, and supernatural situations make up the framework of FranT, the role played by binding agreements, contracts, and consent in the Tale alters the traditional definition of magic. Claims that fourteenth-century society was…

Explores the ambivalence of the forest in several examples, particularly ones drawn from KnT and BD.

This comparative study of the two texts, based on the same motif of the gathering of birds, aims at exposing the spiritual and moral differences of the works. The theological and philosophical intention in Attar has disappeared in Chaucer's treatment…

Explores the type, use, and functions of formulas in Th, in relation to parody; in Mel, in dramatic form reinforcing allegory.

Comments on the relationship between narration and food in CT.