Now available in paperback, Between two stools investigates the representation of
scatology–humorous, carnivalesque, satirical, damning and otherwise–in English literature …

This study triangulates the three features of the final scene in the Summoner's Tale identified
in my title. The relationship between two of these, farting and theology, is clear enough …

This essay situates Chaucer's Pardoner within the context of modern cynicism, or what Peter
Sloterdijk calls" enlightened false consciousness." Though he admits that his relics are …

This dissertation examines Chaucer's depiction of curiositas in the Canterbury Tales. Its
argument is that, while displaying an orthodox view of curiositas, Chaucer modified the way …

Chaucer, Gower, and Clanvowe, the three first English poets to take up the conventions of
dits amoureux, also composed religious pastoralia–unlike any fourteenth-century composer …

Individual movement in the medieval period could be a charged activity, since it enabled the
walker to navigate independently through urban space and among disparate social …

This dissertation is a study of medieval theories of the nonsense word. I establish how
Aristotle's account of utterance underwent a major alteration in its transmission to the Middle …

By attending to what does not make sense, or does not coherently signify, within the process
of narration, anti-hermeneutic psychoanalysis poses a profound challenge to the related …

When the Dreamer of Pearl first encounters the Maiden, he attempts to describe a giant
pearl affixed to her bosom and finds he can only say,“A manneʒ dom moʒt dryʒly …

The infants-of-Eden debate outlined at the outset of this chapter provides the framework for
Chaucer's depiction of the child between birth and seven years and addresses the tensions …