Donaldson, E. Talbot. Speaking of Chaucer. North Carolina: The Labyrinth Press, 1983.
Speaking of Chaucer is a collection of papers from E. Talbot Donaldson on many different topics that plague Chaucer scholars and readers, most of which are well-known amongst the discipline. Many of the articles are direct answers to and critiques of common ways of reading Chaucer, such as "The Effect of the Merchant's Tale," in which Donaldson addresses the question of whether or not "The Merchant's Tale" is too dark to be funny. This book contains several excellent articles on the women in Chaucer's works. Donaldson seems to be particularly interested in the character of Criseide, and his writings on her are a must read for anyone interested in further study of Criseide, Chaucerian love, and the portrayal of women in his tales.
Several of the articles included deal with the sources for and editing of The Canterbury Tales, and I must admit they were a little difficult to follow.
This book can be found at the Main Stacks on the third floor of Seymour Library.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine
Siraisi, Nancy. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine provides a historical overview of Western European medical practice, theory, and social reception. Due to the breadth of subject matter, encompassing several aspects of medicine in a wide spatial and temporal frame, Siraisi's book is best suited as a topical introduction. She begins by outlining the foundations of medieval and renaissance medicine, stressing its Greek intellectual roots. Medieval and renaissance medical practitioners are analyzed generally according to social standing, wealth, experience and practice without marginalizing exceptions. Time is devoted to a smaller number of female physicians and surgeons, Jewish practitioners and saintly miracle healers. University medical education is discussed in terms of its curricula, interdisciplinarity, practical application and social reception. The study includes an introduction to anatomical methodology from its Hellenistic roots to the sixteenth-century new anatomy dependent on human dissection. The book explores the definitions of health and disease, typical treatments (diet, medication and surgery) and complexion theory. While other historical interpretations are limited to either medieval or renaissance medicine, an editorial choice that enforces periodization, Siraisi widens her scope to include some of both. One strength of her study is its inclusiveness despite necessary generalities. It would be most useful to those interested in medieval and renaissance body rhetoric, the medical profession, its founding principles or early anatomy/surgery.
This book is available on the open reserves shelf at the library.
Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine provides a historical overview of Western European medical practice, theory, and social reception. Due to the breadth of subject matter, encompassing several aspects of medicine in a wide spatial and temporal frame, Siraisi's book is best suited as a topical introduction. She begins by outlining the foundations of medieval and renaissance medicine, stressing its Greek intellectual roots. Medieval and renaissance medical practitioners are analyzed generally according to social standing, wealth, experience and practice without marginalizing exceptions. Time is devoted to a smaller number of female physicians and surgeons, Jewish practitioners and saintly miracle healers. University medical education is discussed in terms of its curricula, interdisciplinarity, practical application and social reception. The study includes an introduction to anatomical methodology from its Hellenistic roots to the sixteenth-century new anatomy dependent on human dissection. The book explores the definitions of health and disease, typical treatments (diet, medication and surgery) and complexion theory. While other historical interpretations are limited to either medieval or renaissance medicine, an editorial choice that enforces periodization, Siraisi widens her scope to include some of both. One strength of her study is its inclusiveness despite necessary generalities. It would be most useful to those interested in medieval and renaissance body rhetoric, the medical profession, its founding principles or early anatomy/surgery.
This book is available on the open reserves shelf at the library.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Kimpel, Ben. “The Narrator of the Canterbury Tales.”
Kimpel, Ben. “The Narrator of the Canterbury Tales.” ELH: A Journal of English Literary History 20.2(1953):77-86.
Kimpel examines the personality and role of the narrator of the Canterbury Tales as well as whether he should be viewed as Chaucer inserting himself into the story. Kimpel argues that the role that the narrator plays within the prologue is one of necessity and that we can glean little information about his personality from his remarks. He goes on to argue that very little evidence of the narrator’s personality exists throughout the rest of the tales, with the possible exception of the prologue. He notes that many critics are troubled by an apparent tension between the personality they believe is apparent in the general prologue and that shown in prologue to the tale of “Sir Thopas.” He concludes by saying that the narrator does not exhibit a strong enough personality to be seen as playing an important role in the Canterbury Tales and that there is certainly not enough evidence to present a link between Chaucer and the narrator.
Available on JSTOR.
Kimpel examines the personality and role of the narrator of the Canterbury Tales as well as whether he should be viewed as Chaucer inserting himself into the story. Kimpel argues that the role that the narrator plays within the prologue is one of necessity and that we can glean little information about his personality from his remarks. He goes on to argue that very little evidence of the narrator’s personality exists throughout the rest of the tales, with the possible exception of the prologue. He notes that many critics are troubled by an apparent tension between the personality they believe is apparent in the general prologue and that shown in prologue to the tale of “Sir Thopas.” He concludes by saying that the narrator does not exhibit a strong enough personality to be seen as playing an important role in the Canterbury Tales and that there is certainly not enough evidence to present a link between Chaucer and the narrator.
Available on JSTOR.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Kathleen Hewitt, ' "Ther It Was First": Dream Poetics in the Parliament of Fowls.'
Hewitt, Kathleen. "Ther It Was First": Dream Poetics in the Parliament of Fowls. The Chaucer Review, Vol. 24. No. 1, 1989. pp. 20-28.
Hewitt elaborates on Chaucer's literary sources in the Parliament of Fowls, focusing on Cicero's Dream of Scipio, Dante's Inferno, Boccaccio's Teseida, and Alain de Lille's Plaint of Nature. Hewitt also examines how the dream sequence of Chaucer's Parliament is fashioned like the segment of Cicero's Dream, in which Africanus explains the movement of the concentric spheres (from unity to disunity) to the younger Scipio. The article purports that the narrator's dream in Parliament illuminates the whole of the structure of this explanation. The article is also enlightening in that it compares particular segments of the dream, such as the gateway with two stanzas of verse on either side and the juxtaposition of the temple of Venus with Priapus and the inexplicable plethora of birds, as a clustering of source materials that has been deviated from, allowing the reader to account for the lack of resolution at the end of the poem.
Hewitt elaborates on Chaucer's literary sources in the Parliament of Fowls, focusing on Cicero's Dream of Scipio, Dante's Inferno, Boccaccio's Teseida, and Alain de Lille's Plaint of Nature. Hewitt also examines how the dream sequence of Chaucer's Parliament is fashioned like the segment of Cicero's Dream, in which Africanus explains the movement of the concentric spheres (from unity to disunity) to the younger Scipio. The article purports that the narrator's dream in Parliament illuminates the whole of the structure of this explanation. The article is also enlightening in that it compares particular segments of the dream, such as the gateway with two stanzas of verse on either side and the juxtaposition of the temple of Venus with Priapus and the inexplicable plethora of birds, as a clustering of source materials that has been deviated from, allowing the reader to account for the lack of resolution at the end of the poem.
Chaucer and Courtly Love Once More--"The Wife of Bath's Tale" by George R. Coffman
Coffman, George R. Chaucer and Courtly Love Once More—“The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Speculum, Vol. 20, NO. 1. (Jan., 1945), pp. 43-50.
In this article Coffman argues what when the Wife of Bath’s Tale is interpreted with reference to the tradition of courtly love, presented by Capellanus’s De Amore and the Courts of Love of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Tale shows how the traditions of courtly love are applied to life rather than to literary convention. Apart from summarizing the Tale and introducing his sources, Coffman’s article is devoted to displaying the incongruities of the courtly love tradition as they appear in the Wife of Bath’s Tale. Three examples he states include: the fact that the very Court of Love that by its own codes should have condemned the knight gives him salvation instead, the idea of nobleness of character shown by the epitome of gentilesse in the Loathly Lady and not the nobleness of position does not fit with the reality of feudal society, the Tale’s resolution presents a bond of love between husband and wife.
In this article Coffman argues what when the Wife of Bath’s Tale is interpreted with reference to the tradition of courtly love, presented by Capellanus’s De Amore and the Courts of Love of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Tale shows how the traditions of courtly love are applied to life rather than to literary convention. Apart from summarizing the Tale and introducing his sources, Coffman’s article is devoted to displaying the incongruities of the courtly love tradition as they appear in the Wife of Bath’s Tale. Three examples he states include: the fact that the very Court of Love that by its own codes should have condemned the knight gives him salvation instead, the idea of nobleness of character shown by the epitome of gentilesse in the Loathly Lady and not the nobleness of position does not fit with the reality of feudal society, the Tale’s resolution presents a bond of love between husband and wife.
P. B. Taylor, Chaucer's Cosyn to the Dede
Taylor, P. B. "Chaucer's Cosyn to the Dede." Speculum, Vol. 57, No. 2. (Apr. 1982), pp. 315-327.
Taylor explores the problematic relationships between words, intentions, and action found in Chaucer by focusing on the narrator's apology in the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales. He first rejects the conventional understandings of the apology, and proposes a more complex, multi-layered reading. By tracing and analyzing Chaucer's sources (Boethius, Jean de Meun, and Chalcidius) back to Plato, Isocrates and Sallust, Taylor shows how Chaucer's "cosyn to the dede" actually encompasses two separate and different conceptions of the nature and use of words - that of Isocrates and that of Plato. Thus, Chaucer's apology, in its rejection of Isocrates/Sallust for Plato and when placed beside the appeal to Christ, simultaneously suggests and rejects that "words both clothe morality and reflect in their particular references a world of universals." Taylor follows up with other elements in the Tales that support his claim such as puns on the words "cosyn" and "dede" and different meanings for particular phrases and words. Lastly, Taylor argues, through examining the realism vs. nominalism debate found between the Parson's and Pardoner's Tales, that Chaucer is a "Christian Platonist" who aspires for intent to inform action through words. However, this ideal aspiration is always "sullied" in reality.
This is an excellent article, but it does assume a working knowledge of Latin and familiarity with the works of ancient and medieval philosophers.
Available on JSTOR.
-Chor
Taylor explores the problematic relationships between words, intentions, and action found in Chaucer by focusing on the narrator's apology in the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales. He first rejects the conventional understandings of the apology, and proposes a more complex, multi-layered reading. By tracing and analyzing Chaucer's sources (Boethius, Jean de Meun, and Chalcidius) back to Plato, Isocrates and Sallust, Taylor shows how Chaucer's "cosyn to the dede" actually encompasses two separate and different conceptions of the nature and use of words - that of Isocrates and that of Plato. Thus, Chaucer's apology, in its rejection of Isocrates/Sallust for Plato and when placed beside the appeal to Christ, simultaneously suggests and rejects that "words both clothe morality and reflect in their particular references a world of universals." Taylor follows up with other elements in the Tales that support his claim such as puns on the words "cosyn" and "dede" and different meanings for particular phrases and words. Lastly, Taylor argues, through examining the realism vs. nominalism debate found between the Parson's and Pardoner's Tales, that Chaucer is a "Christian Platonist" who aspires for intent to inform action through words. However, this ideal aspiration is always "sullied" in reality.
This is an excellent article, but it does assume a working knowledge of Latin and familiarity with the works of ancient and medieval philosophers.
Available on JSTOR.
-Chor
George Lyman Kittredge, "The Marriage Group"
George Lyman Kittredge, "The Marriage Group"
George Lyman Kittredge. "The Marriage Group." The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prolouge, 2005, p. 539-546.
In this criticism, Kittredge discusses the topic of marriage that is brought up between the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Summoner, the Clerk, the Merchant, and the Franklin Prolouges and Tales. The essay starts off with the examination of the Wife of Bath character. The main focus that Kittredge focuses on her is the claim she makes at the end of her Tale about how men should subject themselves to their wives and that they shouldn't be lording over them. The rest of the essay examins how the Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Merchant, and Franklin tackle her statement through their own Tales. Kittredge writes most of the remainder of his essay on the Clerk's Tale and how much of an impact it had in retaliation to the Wife of Bath's statement of male subjectivity. Kittredge ends his essay on criticing the Franklin's Tale. Kittredge states that this was used by Chaucer to end the argument started by the Wife of Bath in which the Franklin states that married couples should be subject to love and not each other. The criticism is a study on what Chaucer is saying about marriage during the time in which he lived. Chaucer is writing this as a view on how marriage was seen in his time but not as a lesson according to Kittredge. Kittredge ends his critic with stating how this group is a study not a lesson on marriage.
-Patrick Cogar
George Lyman Kittredge. "The Marriage Group." The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prolouge, 2005, p. 539-546.
In this criticism, Kittredge discusses the topic of marriage that is brought up between the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Summoner, the Clerk, the Merchant, and the Franklin Prolouges and Tales. The essay starts off with the examination of the Wife of Bath character. The main focus that Kittredge focuses on her is the claim she makes at the end of her Tale about how men should subject themselves to their wives and that they shouldn't be lording over them. The rest of the essay examins how the Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Merchant, and Franklin tackle her statement through their own Tales. Kittredge writes most of the remainder of his essay on the Clerk's Tale and how much of an impact it had in retaliation to the Wife of Bath's statement of male subjectivity. Kittredge ends his essay on criticing the Franklin's Tale. Kittredge states that this was used by Chaucer to end the argument started by the Wife of Bath in which the Franklin states that married couples should be subject to love and not each other. The criticism is a study on what Chaucer is saying about marriage during the time in which he lived. Chaucer is writing this as a view on how marriage was seen in his time but not as a lesson according to Kittredge. Kittredge ends his critic with stating how this group is a study not a lesson on marriage.
-Patrick Cogar
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