Smith, Susan L.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
Examines visual and verbal representations of the sexual power of women as "a topos of exemplification within the theory and practice of ancient and medieval rhetoric," especially as it developed in the twelfth through fourteenth centuries. Focuses…
Bryant, Brantley L.
Isle: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26 (2019): 1006-37.
Ecocritical examination of the depiction of the sea in the Ceyx and Alcyone episode of BD, focusing on its shorelessness, comparing it with analogous accounts and with the representation of water in John of Trevisa's "On the Properties of Things,"…
Knudson, Karen R.
Dissertation Abstracts International A78.03 (2016): n.p.
Includes discussion of Chaucer's "two brief glimpses" of Solomon as a figure of wisdom in CT, and more extended discussion of Solomon as author in Mel, WBP, MerT, and ParsT.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, ed.
New York : St. Martin's Press, 2000.
Fourteen essays by various authors and an introduction by Cohen, using and critiquing postcolonial theory in discussing medieval texts. Topics include the idea of the Orient; notions of time (temporalities) in postcolonial studies; Christian…
Scala, Elizabeth, and Sylvia Federico, eds.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Nine essays by various authors and an introduction by the editors "look beyond the absolute horizon of Marxist historicism in ways that display concern with how we know, with the limits of our knowledge, and with ourselves as presumably knowing…
Examines details of the GP sketch of the Prioress and the sensibility of PrT for the ways they clash, exploring their details in light of medieval convent learning and practice. The Prioress may have learned her courtliness as a devotee of Queen Anne…
Ikegami, Masa (T.)
Keio University Kyoyo-Ronan 80 (1989): 29-59.
Gives positive evidence of final "-e" in Chaucer's rhyme, especially in thirty-two rhyme sequences in which the distinction between two successive rhymes is made only by presence in one and absence from the other of final "-e".
McCarthy, Conor.
Donald Mowbray, Rhiannon Purdie, and Ian P. Wei, eds. Authority & Community in the Middle Ages (Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1999), pp. 101-15.
Because they were not subject to fathers or husbands, widows posed a challenge to dominant views of women in late fourteenth-century England. Chaucer's Wife of Bath is portrayed as lecherous, yet she may also embody broader concerns about widowhood.
PhyT has been undervalued; it is meant to be read in conjunction with the two that precede and follow it. A comparison with Gower's version and with Chaucer's similar story of Lucrece elucidates the tale. Virginia's character is brought into focus…
Braeger, Peter C.
Susanna Greer Fein, David Raybin, and Peter C. Braeger, eds. Rebels and Rivals: The Contestive Spirit in The Canterbury Tales. Studies in Medieval Culture, no. 29 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991), pp. 223-26.
Abstract of an article unfinished because of the author's death, examining the more than thirty verbal contexts for "Fortune."
Haskell, Ann S.
Marlene Springer, ed. What Manner of Woman. Gotham Library. (New York: New York University Press, 1978), pp. 1-14.
The romance, reflecting a male dominated society, depicts heroines as stereotypically as the less popular fabliau depicts lower class women. Later literature gives more access to women's lives, particularly middle class ones. Chaucer's Wife…
Bauer, Kate A.
Dissertation Abstracts International 56 (1996): 3949A.
Cross-disciplinary evidence (since the publication of Phillipe Aries's "Centuries of Childhood") indicates that strong love between parents and children existed in medieval culture. Chaucer, Gower, and the "Pearl" poet represent children and family…
Stielstra, Diane.
Dissertation Abstracts International 46 (1986): 3715A.
Examines psychological portrayals in TC, inner monologues, and audience response as compared to sources in Benoit, Guido, and Boccaccio. Compares Criseyde's inner monologues with Troilus's.
Burrow, J. A.
A. J. Minnis, ed. Gower's "Confessio Amantis": Responses and Reassessments (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1983), pp. 5-24.
In an analysis of Gower's combination of confession, "dits amoreux," and concern with old age in the "Confessio Amantis," observes a number of comparisons and contrasts with Chaucer: the individuation of Amans and of the lovers in TC, uses of the…
Fisher, John H.
Nancy M. Reale and Ruth E. Sternglantz, eds. Satura: Studies in Medieval Literature in Honour of Robert R. Raymo (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2001), 239-47; 36 b&w illus.
Fisher comments on the series of faces or portraits depicted in the historiated initials of the Bedford Psalter, arguing that they depict members of the affinities of Richard II and Henry IV: the kings themselves and the future Henry V, Gower,…
Morrison, Theodore, ed.
New York: Viking Press, 1975.
Originally published in 1949, the volume includes modern translations of selections from CT (all except for ShT, Mel, MkT, ClT, SqT, PhyT, MancT, and ParsT, which are described in summary); TC; selections from HF and LGWP; and samples of the short…
Bratcher, James T., and Nicholai von Kreisler.
Southern Folklore Quarterly 35 (1971): 325-35.
Assesses narrative suspension and crossing motivations in MilT and three analogous U.S. version of the "misdirected-kiss and branding story," including two folktales and George Milburn's "Old John's Woman" (also titled "Julie"; 1956). Suggests that…
Kinney, Thomas L.
Literature and Psychology 28 (1978): 76-84.
PhyT has presented critics a problem. One way to account for it is to read it by dream analysis--as a dream-tale presenting the refusal of a girl to accept sexual maturation. Apius represents the power of sexual awakening,eros; the father her male…
Heffernan, Thomas J., ed.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
Includes the following: D. W. Robertson, "Who Were 'The People'?"; Leonard E. Boyle, O.P., "The Fourth Lateran Council and Manuals of Popular Theology"; Judith Shaw, "The Influence of Canonical and Episcopal Reform on Popular Books of Instruction";…
Scott, Anne M. Vergasser.
Sharon Farmer, ed. Approaches to Poverty in Medieval Europe (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 229-52.
Explores enigmatic medieval attitudes toward poverty through the allegorical figures of three "loathly ladies"--Lady Poverty (Franciscan "Sacrum commercium"), Chaucer's Wife of Bath's hag, and Glad Poverty (Prologue to Book III of Lydgate's "Fall of…
Gunn, Alan M. F.
Betsy Feagan Colquitt, ed. Studies in Medieval Renaissance American Literature: A Festschrift [Honoring Troy C. Crenshaw, Lorraine Sherley, Ruth Speer Angell] (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1971), pp. 1-18..
Proposes a "taxonomy" of medieval romance, which is epitomized by "chivalric romance," but ranges widely in mode, tone, and motif from "proto-romance" to "counter-romance." Characterizes various forms and sub-forms and includes tabular anatomies of…
In the fifteenth century, Chaucer was admired chiefly as the founder of English eloquence, betraying English anxiety about French influences. The patronage networks that promoted Chaucer as a literary icon also promoted translations of the works of…
Though Mary Giffin suggests a connection between SNT and Cardinal Adam Easton, the more important connection is between SNT and the schism in the church during his time. ManT relates thematically to SNT by providing a counter-point to the Second Nun…
"Pearl" reflects the political and social turmoil of Richard's reign and is a product of the rich visual and verbal culture of his Cheshire coterie. Political and social allusions in the poem engage Lollardy, labor laws, court magnificence,…
