illustrated portrait of English poet and author Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

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BIOGRAPHY

Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, 365 p.

Detailed biography discussing what is known about Chaucer's birth, parentage and childhood; his early career and writings; his achievement of fame and his public life; and his later career.

CRITICISM

Allen, Valerie and Ares Axiotis, eds. Chaucer. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, 268 p.

Collection of critical essays dealing largely with the Canterbury Tales. Several essays focus on gender issues.

Besserman, Lawrence. Chaucer's Biblical Poetics. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998, 338 p.

Book-length study of the biblical allusions and quotations in Chaucer's work. The author maintains that Chaucer's poetry, suffused with such allusions, demonstrates his interest in medieval beliefs concerning biblical authority and in the “specifically English problematization” of those beliefs.

Blamires, Alcuin. The Canterbury Tales. London: Macmillan, 1987, 87 p.

Offers an introduction and overview focusing on Chaucer's sources, literary conventions, medieval contexts, social and political historicism, dramatic and psychological readings, and varieties of textual analysis. Blamires also discusses questions concerning Chaucer's authorship, his intent, and his narrative strategies.

Cooper, Helen. “The Canterbury Tales.” In The Canterbury Tales, pp. 5-25. Oxford Guides to Chaucer. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Introduces the text with a discussion of the date, textual history, sources and analogues, structure, themes, and style of the Canterbury Tales.

Despres, Denise L. “Cultic Anti-Judaism and Chaucer's Litel Clergeon.” Modern Philology 91, No. 4 (May 1994): 413-27.

Examines the relationship between the eucharistic symbolism and anti-Judaism in the “Prioress's Tale,” in an effort to discern how such issues were presented to Chaucer's contemporary audience, who had no association with and little memory of Jews in England.

Dugas, Don-John. “The Legitimization of Royal Power in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale.Modern Philology 95, No. 1 (August 1997): 27-43.

Suggests that the tale not be studied in terms of its story and heroine, but treated in terms of historical and genealogical significance.

Robertson, D. W., Jr. A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1962, 519 p.

Analysis of the particularly medieval contexts within which Chaucer wrote, and the importance of artistic, stylistic, religious, philosophical, and social considerations.

Woods, William F. “Society and Nature in the Cook's Tale.Papers on Language and Literature 32, No. 2 (Spring 1996): 189-205.

Discusses the ways in which “The Cook's Tale” informs the earlier tales by providing the context of urban London, which develops the motivation and action of the other tales.

Additional coverage of Chaucer's life and career is contained in the following sources published by Gale Group: Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography Before 1660; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 146;DISCovering Authors; DISCovering Authors: British; DISCovering Authors: Canadian; DISCovering Authors: Modules—Most Studied Authors Module and Poets Module; Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Vol. 17; Poetry Criticism Vol. 19; andWorld Literature Criticism Supplement.

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Criticism