Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess": Contexts and Interpretations.

Description: Includes nine essays, plus a response, by various authors, with an index and an introduction by the editor. Argues for a reassessment of the critical relevance of BD, which has often been marginalized, as a work that is simultaneously "multilingual" and "seminally 'English,' " emphasizing its internationalism and sophistication as a contribution to late medieval practices of vernacularity and ideas of authorship. Contains units on "Books and Bodies" and "The Intertextual Duchess," focusing, respectively, on the poem's "textual construction and internal dynamics" and on its literary relationships as seen through a comparatist lens. For nine essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Book of the Duchess: Contexts and Interpretations under Alternative Title.