"The Canterbury Tales" was the first great poem in the English language, and it remains a favorite among students and scholars to this day. Ideal for research, this volume includes a comprehensive collection of interpretive essays that provide expert commentary on this timeless work. It also features an introduction by master scholar Harold Bloom, a chronology detailing Chaucer's life, a bibliography, and an index.
"This work, the latest entry in Blackwell's "Companions to Literature and Culture" series. . . provides an inclusive and scholarly orientation to current theories and interpretation of Chaucer's works." "Each essay. . . places Chaucer's texts into cultural context by examining the medieval point of view, and includes notes, references, and suggestions for further readings." "The text. . . will serve well as a one-volume introduction for new students. It also provides access to original research and new ideas sought by graduate students and faculty." Library Journal
Demonstrates that Chaucer structured both Canterbury Tales after the astrolabe, an Arabic time-keeping device. Chaucer's fascination with this device also accounts for the sense of the time and astronomy in the Tales.
Why are there so many celestial allusions in the Canterbury Tales? In this revealing work, Marijane Osborn brings insight to Chaucer's celestial references by exploring his fascination with the astrolabe ("star-catcher"), a medieval device used for calculating the position of celestial bodies. Osborn suggests that Chaucer took his symbolic structure for the famous pilgrimage story from the functions of the astrolabe, which calculates time in relation to celestial movements.
While writing the Tales, Chaucer also wrote A Treatise on the Astrolabe, the oldest work on a scientific instrument in the English language. Osborn describes Chaucer's treatise so that a careful reader might learn about the astrolabe's functions.
This concise companion provides a succinct introduction to Chaucer's major works, the contexts in which he wrote, and to medieval thought more generally. * Opens with a general introductory section discussing London life and politics, books and authority, manuscripts and readers. * Subsequent sections focus on Chaucer's major works - the dream visions, Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales. * Essays highlight the key religious, political and intellectual contexts for each major work. * Also covers important general topics, including: medieval literary genres; dream theory; the Church; gender and sexuality; and reading Chaucer aloud. * Designed so that each contextual essay can be read alongside one of Chaucer's major works.
Women are a major subject of Chaucer's writings, and their place in his work has attracted much recent critical attention. Feminizing Chaucer investigates Chaucer's thinking about women, and re-assesses it in the light of developments in feminist criticism. It explores Chaucer's handling of gender issues, of power roles, of misogynist stereotypes and the writer's responsibility for perpetuating them, and the complex meshing of activity and passivity in human experience.
