A Guide to English Literature.

Description: Briskly surveys English literature and studies of it from the Middle English period to 1960, providing introductions to individual historical periods and lists of editions and criticism for individual authors and topics. Chaucer figures largely in "The Approach to Medieval Literature" (pp. 12-30) as a precursor to a standard of "correctness" in literary and linguistic matters (including prosody) and as a poet who capitalizes on oral recitation in his fabrications of a "pseudo-audience," "pseudo-narrators," and "pseudo-sources." Also comments on Chaucer's works as reflections of the impact of the Black Death, the collapse of villeinage, and themes of love and plenitude. A brief reading list (pp. 40-42) is highly selective and opinionated.

Chaucer Subjects: Background and General Criticism
Style and Versification
Bibliographies, Reports, and Reference