Browse Items (15542 total)

BD contains analogies within analogies and poems within poems. The poem's subject is the mental movement from figure to embedded figure. The redemption offered in the poem is "the salvation that is opened within the mind as it recedes into…

Explores literary production and representations of craft labor and artisans in the Middle Ages. Looks at works by Chaucer, Lydgate, and Caxton, as well as lesser-known medieval writers.

Argues that for readers sensitive to literary tradition and genre expectations KnT is a "delightful satire" of courtly love and the metrical romance genre, along with the "chivalric code implicit in them."

Argues that "for the sophisticated reader" KnT satirizes the "hallowed institutions of the chivalric tradition and their literary and supposed societal foundations." While "literal-minded" readers may justifiably find that the Tale "idealizes the…

Although PF ends inconclusively, Chaucer gives it a sense of ending through the concluding roundel, which provides an image of resolution, affirming that, while life may be inconclusive, art can provide an ending.

Also in Revue de l'Universite d'Ottawa 53 (1983): 297-308.

Retellings of the Cecilia legend exemplify the range and flexibility of Middle English hagiography.

Furrow surveys medieval verbal and visual depictions of the love-tryst beneath the tree, focusing on the duping of Mark by Tristan and Isolde. Adaptations of the scene in romances include MerT and its analogue, "The Comedy of Lydia."

An encyclopedic survey of medieval arts and humanities. The section on Literature, by Lorraine Stock, includes a summary analysis of CT (pp. 199-201) and a description of Chaucer's life and works (p. 205).

Explores a tradition of literature about dying that "combines medieval work
on the philosophy of language with contemporary theorizing on death and dying." Analyzes dying and tragedy in KnT, PardT, and BD.

The medieval "ars dictaminis" evolved from fusion of rhetorical theory and letter-writing practice. Though originally an all-male art, epistolary form eventually became accessible to women. Examines PardT and other works.

Considers the household as a complex image central to understanding late-medieval England, exploring literary, historical, and economic representations for what they disclose about the "ethics of possession." Analyzes aspects of "Winner and Waster,"…

Analyzes Chaucer's self-consciousness as a writer though the narrator in the prologue, the proems, and the ending of TC. Not the result of naivete, the contradictions, emotional involvement, and irony suggest that the narrator's design is to whet the…

Investigates Chaucer's biographical and literary "travels" to Italy, with chapters dedicated to 1) English travel to Italy; 2) Chaucer and the "Italian wedding" of Prince Lionel; 3) Chaucer and Petrarch; 4) Chaucer in Milan; and 5) the influence of…

Two allusions to birds of mythology suggest the "conflicts of signification" in TC; their ambiguity makes the reader "an active participant in the poem."

Assesses Theseus of LGW as a "superlative of falseness," arguing that the figure, more so than the Theseus of KnT or its classical precedents, influenced Marlowe and Nash'’s "Dido, Queen of Carthage" and, subsequently, Shakespeare's "A Midsummer…

Analyzes the development of th- forms of pronouns (as opposed to h- forms), suggesting that they have less to do with Scandinavian influence than with linguistic generalization and assimilation.

The "illocutionary" system of the narration in CT is organized into six levels based on two criteria: direct communication between literary personae standing at the same illocutionary level and transferred communication between different levels.

Chaucer employed color adjectives more extensively than did his contemporaries. He preferred basic colors and used them most in connection with human beings. Chaucer's most "colorful" poem is KnT, followed by Rom and GP. Often, his colors are used…

Two tales in CT define Chaucer's role as an "implied author" and reflect his double vocation as a poet and diplomat. Th is a "brilliant example of his mastery as a poet"; Mel expresses his "ideological premises," anticipating the closing of the…

Surveys Chaucer's various metaphoric uses of animals, from "simple and conventional ideas about animals to throw light on man" to more elaborated or developed characterizations through more detailed comparisons.

Robertson encourages feminist critics to confront "the complexities of the relationship between women and religion" in Chaucer's religious tales, for "what appear in these tales to be extremes of female suffering and violence against women are…

Uses principles of Kenneth Burke's rhetoric of form to analyze NPT, commenting on aspects of its progressions (syllogistic, inverted, and repetitive), aspects of its genre conventions, and examples of its rhetorical ornamentation.

According to a theological tradition of the late Middle Ages, gluttony included swearing, blasphemy, sorcery, witchcraft, and devil worship, as well as excessive eating and drinking.

Interprets details of FrT in light of contemporaneous social commentaries to clarify nuances of irony, sarcasm, and criticism of the Summoner.