Browse Items (16107 total)

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.

Argues that the "study of the apocalyptic in the English literature of the late fourteenth cannot boil down simply to the tracing of sources or to historicist (New and otherwise) readings of contemporary texts and artifacts," and pursues, instead,…

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.

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 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…

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…

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.

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.

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.

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…

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"…

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.

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."

Briefly records the chronology of Thomas Staundon, Chaucer, and Cecily Chaumpaigne

Gathers together previously known documents concerning Cecily Chaumpaigne with newly discovered documents. Documents are transcribed and translations provided.

Lists and describes nine documents about Chaucer's life discovered since the publication of Chaucer's Life-Records in 1966.

Congeries of word and image in FranT relate to truth, figuration, and creativity, foregrounding the polysemy of artistic language.

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…

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…

Argues that SNT "presents conversion as a choice stimulated by apprehension of the divine through the senses" and accomplished by a "radical act of the will, unmediated and immediate, if not inherently violent."

"Sefer Yetsira" of the ancient Jewish mystics, Chaucer's PF and Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" center on the necessary acknowledgement of the unfixed quality of language that Bakhtin describes. All three are concerned with distinct moments in the…

Working through WBP at various points in his writing career, Chaucer conceived of changing the character "Janekyn" to make him "Jankyn," the Wife's fifth husband. Thus, the character changes from an apprentice to a scholar boarding with the Wife to…

Includes papers from the eighth International Conference on Middle English, University of Murcia, Spain, 2013. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Approaches to Middle English: Variation, Contact and Change under Alternative Title.

Examines two major medieval turning-points in the relationship between rich and poor: the revolution in charity of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the era of late medieval crises when the vulnerability of the poor increased and charitable…

Second edition of 1980 volume, "Approaches to Teaching Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales,'" providing articles on pedagogical approaches to teaching CT and including updated section, "The Canterbury Tales in the Digital Age." Sections offer strategies for…