Browse Items (15427 total)

Argues that Prov, although attributed to Chaucer in medieval manuscripts and in the Riverside Chaucer, contains verse forms not found elsewhere in Chaucer’s oeuvre.

Examines Chaucer's limited use of "blew"/"blue" in depictions of color, focusing on the phrase “teres blewe” in Mars, 8. Notes that the connotation of "blue" with melancholy surfaces later, and traces Chaucer's usage of "blewe" to its Gallo-Romance…

Confronts the humor and "problematic sexual biases evident” in TC. Focuses on the consummation scene of Book III and the ways that "#MeToo activism" can inform a conversational pedagogy for engaging with the text, including analysis of the narrator's…

Analyzes the structure and function of reporting verbs, such as "seyde" and "quod, "in representing speech and thought in TC from a variety of viewpoints, including syntactical position of the reporting verbs, balance of direct and indirect…

Discusses in dialogue format a hybrid "general education honors course focusing on the description, understanding, and classification of animals over time," including comments on the use of PF in this course and syllabi for it from 2019 and 2021.

Examines LGW as a poetic work that invites criticism as a function of how it is structured. Looks in depth at Alceste and her efforts in the poem, reappraising how she achieves success with the God of Love.

Investigates the reference to the "Judeo-Roman historian Josephus" in HF, 1429–36, exploring how his authority varies in the Middle Ages "depending on the extent to which he is understood as a Christian or a Jew," and showing how, in Chaucer's poem,…

Offers pedagogical justification for using Brian Helgeland’s movie "A Knight’s Tale" in multicultural teaching, with attention to the movie's brief mention of BD and discussion of the poem's usefulness in broadening student awareness.

Interprets BD as an early example of "illness narrative." BD's structuring concern with sickness and healing, centered upon insomnia detached from the courtly discourse of lovesickness, reflects the preoccupations of late medieval natural philosophy…

Examines the "topos of the dream" in Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio and compares the dream vision in BD. Points to similarities with mystical and shamanic experiences toward ecstasy that go beyond the similarities and differences in the medieval…

Examines the trauma of sexual violence, focusing on Chaucer's rape of Cecily Chaumpaigne, contextualizing the study of trauma through contemporary theorists Cathy Caruth and Ruth Leys along with Astr. Considers "the relationship between Chaucer's…

Argues that "the discarded historical event" of the Peasants' Revolt "surfaces" in NPT "not to record the cracks and crevices in the dwindling feudal system, but to participate in the bestialization and grotesquing of the 1381 insurgents and the…

Using Michel de Certeau's idea of the tactic, argues that the Monk represents the monastic estate, and that he uses tragedies to attack the Host, representative of the city, and the Knight, representative of the nobility. Explores the Monk's own…

Claims that Chaucer may have been aware of a fourteenth-century alchemical work prescribing an "elixir" of "a grain of wheat soaked in wine" that prolongs life long enough for someone whose death is imminent to "speak, make their will, and confess."…

Reads PrT and the thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman "Hugo de
Lincolnia" as "conspiracy theory narratives," showing "how they use language and imagery to generate aesthetic emotions, especially fear and disgust," and revealing connections "both to…

Considers PrT and its depiction of premodern antisemitism and relation to premodern race. Ties PrT’s construction of Jews as a cursed monolith to the workings of structural racism. Discusses Agbabi's "Sharps an Flats," which demonstrates "how…

Claims that the "Pardoner's atypical sexuality is subversive of the medieval gender matrix and that his challenge to heteronormativity is ultimately encompassed and disarmed." The descriptions of the Pardoner in GP and PardPT disrupt "the medieval…

Contextualizes FranT using Hannah Arendt's "The Human Condition," and argues that the tale represents another moment in CT where journeys end abruptly before the destination is reached. Considers how the tale functions as "a parable of how household…

Interprets Griselda of ClT "as the late medieval English Church wedded to a secular power [Walter] that would radically dominate and divest her in the name of reform." Resists "domineering exegetical acts," using "literary and feminist…

Reviews a production of Zadie Smith’s stage play "The Wife of Willesden" (Kiln Theatre), along with the edition of the play (London: Penguin, 2021), describing its relations with WBPT and mentioning other recent adaptations.

Contemplates the word "lemman" in Malyne's dawn song of RvT: its connotations elsewhere in Chaucer's corpus indicate that it names her experience the night before as sexual assault.

Focuses on the Yeoman of GP, suggesting that the figure may have been based on Richard II's archers of the crown. Examines the life of Thomas Forster of Drybek, one of these archers, catalogues biographical information about him, and suggests he is a…

Employs critical race studies and adaptation studies to trace the role and frequency of "somatic brownness" in CT and Rom. Considers brownness as a racial category that is capacious, before tracing "Chaucerian brownness" in several modern…

References a previous article from thirty-five years ago that discussed various translations of important passages from Chaucer and appraised them. As a companion piece, considers ten verse translations of the opening lines of CT. Concludes with an…