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"The poems in Winter Bride teach us the meaning of care-giving. At age forty-six, Monica McAlpine's mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. As the poet came of age, she devoted herself to helping her mother as that disease took its inevitable toll. These artful and deeply moving poems show us how hope can survive in the face of despair. They also show us a care-giver who, over a life-time, learns how to care for herself. Fred Marchant, author of Said Not Said (Graywolf Press)"--
As the first of the Canterbury Tales, the Knight's Tale has been the subject of a vast body of comment by scholars and lay readers. Monica McAlpine provides access to this material in the first of the Chaucer Bibliographies series to deal with a narrative portion of that author's best-known work.
Chaucer's Agents draws on medieval and modern theories of agency to provide fresh readings of the major Chaucerian texts. Collectively, those readings aim to illuminate Chaucer's responses to two greta problems of agency: the degree to which human beings and forces qualify as agents, and the equal reference of "agent" to initiators and instruments. Each chapter surveys medieval conceptions of the agency in question-- allegorical Realities, intelligent animals, pagan gods, women, and the author--and then follows that kind of agent through representative Chaucerian texts. Readers have long recognized Chaucer's interest in questions of causation; Van Dyke shows that his answers to those questions shape, even constitute, his narratives. --Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
This book examines Troilus and Criseyde and The Knight's Tale as poems which work the same plot to contrasting tragic and joyous endings but for the same purpose, of exploring the folly of electing the temporal world over the eternal. It demonstrates that the tragedy of Troilus and Criseyde is a consequence of the folly of relying on Fortune and temporal bliss and works through the pattern of a similar dependence in The Knight's Tale. It then develops the portrayal of the protagonists of the poems as Fortune's Fools through a scrutiny of courtship as game of play, of caritas and cupiditas contrasted with the implications of pity, mercy, grace, and love as used in temporal contexts in the poem but defined theologically elsewhere in Chaucer, and of the limitations of knighthood and chivalry as defined by the world of the poems.
The allied themes of sin and redemption are at the heart of many classics of religious literature, and even secular writers feel compelled to explore the role of sin and redemption in such works as King Lear, Moby-Dick, Paradise Lost, The Portrait of a Lady, The Waste Land, and many more works.. Featuring original essays and excerpts from previously published critical analyses, this addition to the Bloom's Literary Themes series gives students valuable insight into the title's subject theme.
Essays exploring medieval castration, as reflected in archaeology, law, historical record, and literary motifs. Castration and castrati have always been facets of western culture, from myth and legend to law and theology, from eunuchs guarding harems to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century castrati singers. Metaphoric castration pervadesa number of medieval literary genres, particularly the Old French fabliaux - exchanges of power predicated upon the exchange or absence of sexual desire signified by genitalia - but the plain, literal act of castration and its implications are often overlooked. This collection explores this often taboo subject and its implications for cultural mores and cu...
The twelve studies divide into three groups.
A study of Chaucer's definition of tragedy - with special reference to Troilus -and its lasting influence on English dramatists. This book is concerned with the medieval idea of what constituted tragedy; it suggests that it was not a common term, and that those few who used the term did not always intend the same thing by it. Kelly believes that it was Chaucer's work which shaped notions of the genre, and places his achievement in critical and historical context. He begins by contrasting modern with medieval theoretical approaches to genres, then discusses Boccaccio's concept of tragedy before turning to Chaucer himself, exploring the ideas of tragedy prevalent in medieval England and their influence on Chaucer, and showing how Chaucer interpreted the term. Troilus and Criseyde is analysed specifically as a tragedy, with an account of its reception in modern times; for comparison, there is an analysis of how John Lydgate and Robert Henryson, two of Chaucer's imitators, understood and practiced tragedy. Professor HENRY ANSGAR KELLY teaches at UCLA.
The facts and fictions that continue to shape our understanding of Chaucer and his place in literary tradition Is Chaucer the father of English literature? The first English poet? Was he a feminist? A political opportunist? A spy? Is Chaucer’s language too difficult for modern readers? 30 Great Myths about Chaucer explores the widely held ideas and opinions about the medieval poet, discussing how ‘myths’ have influenced Chaucer’s reception history and interpretations of his poetry through the centuries. This unique text offers original insights on the character of Chaucer, the nature of his works, the myths that inform our conceptions of Chaucer, and the underlying causes of these my...