Ladd, Roger A.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Studies the development of mercantile practice in the late Middle Ages and depictions of merchants in English literature, from early satires to greater acceptability. Includes sections on merchants in Langland's "Piers Plowman," Gower's "Mirour de…
Arrathoon, Leigh A.
Language and Style 17:1 (1984): 92-120.
Throughout MerT synonyms for the Boethian values of true bliss and sorrow are juxtaposed to develop the theme of the woe that is in marriage--parallel to the "contemptus mundi" theme of the "Consolation." The protagonist of MerT uses Boethian…
Boitani, Piero.
Piero Boitani, ed. The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 1-19.
In the earliest Troilus myths, Troilus is "not primarily a character but a 'function'": his murder early in the Trojan War is an "omen" of Troy's impending fall. In later works, Troilus's character is more fully developed, and his death--late in…
Johnson, Hannah.
Holly A. Crocker and D. Vance Smith, eds. Medieval Literature: Criticism and Debates (New York; Routledge, 2014), pp. 192-200.
Responds to two critical analyses of PrT by Aranye Fradenburg and Lee Patterson, which highlight "methodological and ethical concerns" with historical analysis of the Tale. Promotes the need to "theorize and historicize" in order to gain deeper…
Kelley, Michael R.
Chaucer Review 14 (1979): 61-73.
Antithesis is the major source of PF's aesthetic unity. It arranges the poem's structural levels in a pattern of oppositions: antithetical word pairs are joined by antithetical arrangements of style, description, characterization, plot, narrative,…
Friedman, John Block.
Emma Cayley and Susan Powell, eds. Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe 1350-1550: Packaging, Presentation, and Consumption (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), pp. 169-86..
Analyzes Chaucer and Wittenwiler from the "perspective of anxiety at the table." Explores how "food- and drink-conveyed class anxieties are used as plot devices" to develop action in MlT, RvT, and "Der Ring." Also mentions possible connections…
Argues that, rooted in "animality" that is "carefully performed and constructed," the humor of MilT "functions to erect a conception of humanity over and against the ostracized and inferior semi-human." The Miller performs his animality, and,…
The feminist film criticism theory of the "male gaze" articulates the "triangulated" male-female relationship of KnT and MilT as they arise in response to Boccaccio's elucidation of the gaze in his "Teseida" and in relation to two classical…
Long, Rebekah.
Dissertation Abstracts International 66 (2005): 2206A
Considers BD and Pearl as case studies in the search for "an appropriate, adequate language of commemoration," as opposed to prior models of elegiac language.
Kang, Ji-Soo.
Medieval and Early Modern English Studies 11 (2006): 243-58.
Considers relationships among apocalypse, history, and literary closure in Dante's Paradiso, Chaucer's BD, and Pearl. Dante brings apocalypse into history, while the other two poets use it to contrast human temporality.
Tournoy, Gilbert.
George Hugo Tucker, ed. Forms of the "Medieval" in the "Renaissance": A Multidisciplinary Exploration of a Cultural Continuum (Charlottesville, Va.: Rookwood, 2000), pp. 175-203.
Traces the developments and distortions of the classical myth of Apollo's service to Admetus and its association with love; includes discussion of the allusion in TC 1.659-65.
Kensak, Michael.
Studies in Philology 98: 143-57, 2001.
Parallels between Chaucer's treatment of Phebus [Apollo] and the treatments in Dante's "Paradiso" and Alain de Lille suggest that ManT reflects the literary tradition of Apollonian ineptitude and prepares the way for the Parson's Christian…
Lee, B. S.
Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 36 (2010): 47-67.
Lee assesses FranT as a "sequel" to SqT that repudiates its magic, replaces its stasis with moral development in the idea of "gentilesse," and provides a missing Christian subtext--a "Christmas miniature" that precedes the apparent disappearance of…
Ransom, Daniel J.
Chaucer Review 41 (2006): 206-12.
Troilus's reference to Apollo speaking "out of a tree" (TC 3.543) is likely not a reflection of Chaucer's misunderstanding Ovid. Numerous authors Chaucer may have read, including Bartholomaeus Anglicus, provide grounds for the conclusion that the…
Archibald, Elizabeth.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991.
Documents and discusses the development, influence, and literary relations of the story of Apollonius to 1609, assessing its formal characteristics and reception. Occasional mention of Chaucer, particularly MLT.
Valentine, Virginia Walker.
Virginia Walker Valentine. Chaucer's Knight: A Man Ther Was (Tampa, Fla.: Axelrod, 1994), pp. 25-33.
Though there are elements of courtly love in TC, the poem does not evaluate Criseyde by courtly standards. Instead, it shows her choosing the "lesser harm" of being unfaithful rather than endangered.
Paul, James Allen.
Dissertation Abstracts International 38 (1977): 3476A.
In medieval narrative theory, "aporia" is set forth as a way of examining the moment when the ironic process begins. BD relies on a withdrawal from literal statement which brings the author's intention to the reader through the process of irony.
Fenn, Jessica.
Studies in Philology 110.3 (2013): 432-58.
Considers "shared speech" to be a theme and a device in PrPT, focusing on apostrophe, prayer, Christian devotion, and anti-Semitic sentiment as means to and expressions of rhetorical community. Describes the place of apostrophe in medieval rhetorical…
Astell, Ann W.
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 13 (1991): 81-97.
Chaucer's additions to Trevet's tale of Constance consist chiefly of rhetorical additions by the narrator and prayers by Custance, converting the tale to a satire of the narrator's long-winded fatalistic views. Apostrophe and prayer, "converse"…
Julius, Patricia Ward.
Dissertation Abstracts International 37 (1976): 3606A-07A.
BD and HF show thematic unity of conflict between appearance (attractive externals) and reality (the authority of books). Replacing reality with worship for the artificial, mutable object is error.
Howard, Ronnalie Roper.
Ball State University Forum 8.3 (1967): 40-44.
Argues that each of the major characters in FranT falls "short of an ideal standard," and that, although the Franklin "recognizes excellence," his Tale expresses an "amused recognition of human inability to live up to ideal standards."
Steiner, Wendy.
Wendy Steiner. The Colors of Rhetoric: Problems in the Relation Between Modern Literature and Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), pp. 221-26.
Congeries of word and image in FranT relate to truth, figuration, and creativity, foregrounding the polysemy of artistic language.
Bertolet, Craig E.
Anna Riehl Bertolet and Carole Levin, eds. Creating the Premodern in the Postmodern Classroom: Creativity in Early English Literature and History Courses (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2018), pp. 83-93.
Describes how to use Pierre Bourdieu's notion of "habitus" and the modern idea of public relations to help students explore how and to what extent the punishments in MilT are or are not "fair"; students are grouped as PR advocates for each of the…
Moore, Stephen G.
Chaucer Review 38 : 83-97, 2003.
The narrative structure of Mel compels the reader to read backward and forward between scenes and episodes, encouraging affective involvement in the universal sentential wisdom of the Tale. The purpose is not that Melibee learn, but that the reader…
