Sottosanti, Danielle Lisa.
Dissertation Abstracts International A80.11 (2019): n.p.
Includes discussion of feigned conversion and the Sultaness in MLT, arguing that she "represents insecurity over the status of religious converts" rather than being merely villainous.
Horvath, Richard P.
Dissertation Abstracts International 57 (1997): 3287A.
Late-medieval English poets asserted their authorial identity in a commercial environment in various ways, including producing fascicles or pamphlets. Chaucer asserted his authorship through letters (Scog, Buk, and the letters in TC). Horvath also…
Martin, Ellen E.
Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi and Gale Sigal, eds. Voices in Translation: The Authority of "Olde Bookes" in Medieval Literature (New York: AMS, 1992), pp. 117-36.
Capitalizing on foregoing treatment of fidelity and intention, the ending of FranT poses a hypothetical and interminable debate over reading the characters. In this concluding turn, Chaucer points up an essential link between the characters' selves…
Kamath, Stephanie A. Viereck Gibbs.
Literature Compass 6 (2009): 1109-26.
Kamath surveys scholarly discussion of the influence of the "Roman de la Rose" on Middle English literature, with special attention to Chaucer's works, including Rom, as well as to those of his contemporaries and descendants.
Arden, Heather M.
New York and London: Garland, 1993.
An annotated bibliography focusing on "The Roman de la Rose," divided into five broad categories: the text of the poem; other works by or attributed to Jean de Meun; modern critical studies; influence; and miscellaneous. Arden provides an overview…
Higuchi, Masayuki.
Journal of English Linguistics 26 (1998): 199-208.
In Chaucer's prose, where usage is unaffected by metrical considerations, the presence or absence of the "y-" prefix in past participles is not random. Chaucer uses "y-" for stylistic variations and to convert nouns to verbs, and it almost always…
Peyton, Henry H.,III.
Interpretations 7 (1975): 8-12.
Although only minor characters, Calkas, Helen, and Cassandra contribute significantly both to the double sorrow of Troilus and to the reader's knowledge of the origin, progress, and inevitable outcome of the conflict between the Greeks and the…
Snyder, Martin.
Journal of Liberal Arts (Seijoh University) 2 (2006): 69-82.
Snyder explores how, despite initial impressions to the contrary, women can be said to have a central function in KnT, even though no woman in the Tale serves as an agent of change.
Dickinson, Jean G.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1985): 145A.
Italian, French, English, and Spanish collections of tales, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, show women in increasingly significant roles. Though often satirized, women appear in lifelike situations and reveal contemporary attitudes.
Rust, Martha.
Suzanne Conklin Akbari and James Simpson, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Chaucer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), pp. 98-125.
Uses the figure of Genius from Alan of Lille's "De planctu Naturae" to flesh out the role of the scribe for Chaucer and his works. Focuses on the role of the scribe not only in Chaucer's work and manuscripts, but also in contemporary scholarship, and…
Straus, Barrie Ruth.
Jean-Jacques Blanchot and Claude Graf, eds. Actes du 2e Colloque de langue et de litterature ecossaises (moyen age et renaissance) (Universite de Strasbourg, 1978), pp. 198-206.
Reading is more important to the meaning of the 'Kingis Quair' than it is to the meaning of Chaucer's dream poems. This point is demonstrated by an analysis of PF.
Studies the narrators of BD, HF, PF, and LGW for the ways that Chaucer uses them to examine "the task of revivifying the past" and explore the truth value of poetry and poetic traditions.
Rhys, Brinley.
Dissertation Abstracts International 25.08 (1964): 3327A.
Organizes the narratorial passages of TC into six groups, and examines them in light of this classification: occupation, courtly love, humor, characterization, Boethian philosophy, and "medievalization," finding that the narrator is most important to…
A general survey referring to the hag of WBT as part of the tradition of women who approach heroes in disguises; to Troilus's dream of Diomedes as a pig, a symbol of lust; and to the Pardoner's counterfeit relics, pig bones.
Reads Saturn and the saturnine elements of KnT as the attitudes and qualities that oppose free will, reason, and Theseus's new age of proper order, moderation, and pity. Chaucer's addition to Boccaccio, Saturn represents the strict and unfortunate…
Garner, Lori Ann.
Mark C. Amodio, ed. New Directions in Oral Theory (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005), pp.255-77.
Contrasts uses of proverbs in TC and in "Havelock the Dane." In the latter, proverbs affirm traditional wisdom and elicit the reader's trust. Chaucer uses proverbs in more complex ways, presenting them as contradictions or in striking juxtapositions…
Fletcher, P. C. B.
Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 26 (June 1966): 43-50.
Compares the characterizations of Palamon and Arcite in KnT, focusing on the relative intensity of their responses to love and arguing that, rather than fortune, their actions and passions determine their outcomes. Arcite"s fall from his horse is the…
Greenfield, Stanley B.
Medium Aevum 36.2 (1967): 141-51.
Compares and contrasts the characterizations of Calkas in the Troy stories of Guido, Benoit, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, arguing that in TC he is depicted so as to ridicule "astrology-prophetism" even while contributing to the poem's "atmosphere of…
Bleeth, Kenneth A.
American Notes and Queries 20 (1982): 130-31.
In adapting the fourth "question d'amore" of the "Filocolo" into the story of FranT, Chaucer changed the task from a flowering garden in January to "remoeve alle the rokkes" from the Brittany coast. Chaucer may have derived this idea from Ovid's…
Bleeth, Kenneth A.
English Studies 74 (1993): 113-23.
The fantasies of the rocks and the garden, initially denoting personal obsession, lose their ominous character when Dorigen and Aurelius enter into dialogue, a discourse grounded in mutual understanding. Unlike the dangerous rocks, threats to our…
Legal proceedings following the 1390 roadside theft from Chaucer while he was on the King's business demonstrate the folly of any medieval challenge to hierarchical prerogative by a gang representing antihierarchical attitudes. Theoretically…
A mythographic history of the figure of Apollo from Augustan Rome to Chaucer. Fumo focuses on the importance of Apollo to Chaucer's poetic self-conception and on Chaucer's representations of the deity in TC, in SqT and FranT, and in ManT.
Abbreviated prose adaptations of selections from CT, interspersed among modernizations in verse of the descriptions of the pilgrims in GP and following the GP order (with slight adjustments). Included are KnT, NPT, ClT, ShT, MLT, FranT, WBT, ManT,…
