Chaucer: An Oxford Guide.

Chaucer: An Oxford Guide. Chaucer: An Oxford Guide. Ed. by Steve Ellis. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press. 2005. xxiv + 644 pp. 24 [pounds sterling]. isbn:978-0-19-925912-0. The publication of yet another guide to Chaucer's works--andone that weighs in at nearly four pounds, even in paperback--risksprovoking pro��vok��ing?adj.Troubling the nerves or peace of mind, as by repeated vexations: a provoking delay at the airport.pro��vok a tart Chaucerian response: 'Hoo ... namoore ofthis!'. But Steve Ellis's substantial collection of speciallycommissioned new essays contains much to win over the resisting reader.Ellis aims to uncover (primarily for undergraduates) a Chaucer who isnot 'boring' or 'irrelevant', and his assembledmaterials demonstrate not just Chaucer's variousness andcomplexity, but the ways in which the history of Chaucer scholarship andinterpretation are serious critical topics in themselves. There is muchhere for readers of all levels and persuasions. A section on 'Historical Contexts' is the first andmeatiest of five constituent parts. Fourteen essays cover Chaucer'slife, fourteenth-century society, politics, and culture, and matterslike 'identity' and 'nationhood', while'Chaucer's Language' and 'Literacy and LiteraryProduction' are treated in informative and accessible ways by DonkaMinkova and Stephen Penn, respectively. Most contributors to this partof the book draw instances and illustrations from Chaucer'swritings into their various overviews. David Griffith's discussionof 'Visual Culture' is particularly effective in anchoring acombination of information and methodological discussion in the detailof selected portions of text. Five essays on 'Literary Contexts' survey different'backgrounds' to Chaucer's work--classical and biblical,English, French, and Italian. These are richly learned, but also freshand thoughtful, and they fulfil an important role in ranging beyond TheCanterbury Tales Canterbury Tales:see Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury Talespilgrimage from London to Canterbury during which tales are told. [Br. Lit.: Canterbury Tales]See : Journey to explore other parts of Chaucer's ouvre. Thefocus narrows a little in the following section of 'Readings',where most of the essays (with the exception of those by Marion Turnerand Barry Windeatt) use selected tales to demonstrate the strategies andfruits of their allotted al��lot?tr.v. al��lot��ted, al��lot��ting, al��lots1. To parcel out; distribute or apportion: allotting land to homesteaders; allot blame.2. critical approaches. The eight essays here areusefully representative of current trends in Chaucer criticism, buttheir historical contingency is neatly confirmed by an introductorydiscussion of 'Modern Chaucer Criticism' (by ElizabethRobertson), and by their juxtapositioning with the fourth section ofessays, called 'Afterlife', which returns us to Chaucerreception from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. In thiscontext, the twenty-first-century Chaucer who offers himself up toreadings variously carnivalesque, psycholanalytic, postcolonial post��co��lo��ni��al?adj.Of, relating to, or being the time following the establishment of independence in a colony: postcolonial economics., queer,postmodern post��mod��ern?adj.Of or relating to art, architecture, or literature that reacts against earlier modernist principles, as by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of style or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes: , feminist, or new historicist, simply takes his placealongside numerous other Chaucers who have come and gone in space andtime. Included in the 'Afterlife' section are discussions ofthe history of Chaucer editing, and of 'Chaucer and hisGuides' (entertainingly outlined by Peter Brown). The bookconcludes with an excellent section on 'Study Resources', bothprinted and electronic, which complements the annotated lists of furtherreading at the end of each essay. What is new or distinctive about this collection? First, its scopeand size allow for wide-ranging coverage, for apparatus of a genuinelyinformative kind, and for essays of a length that permits contributorsto be something other than superficial. Secondly, it succeeds incombining high-quality scholarship and learning with illuminating il��lu��mi��nate?v. il��lu��mi��nat��ed, il��lu��mi��nat��ing, il��lu��mi��natesv.tr.1. To provide or brighten with light.2. To decorate or hang with lights.3. andwellhandled critical readings and discussions. A number of the essays(Barry Windeatt's discussion of 'Postmodernism', inparticular) might profitably be recommended to non-Chaucerians for thedeftness deft?adj. deft��er, deft��estQuick and skillful; adroit. See Synonyms at dexterous.[Middle English, gentle, humble, variant of dafte, foolish; see daft. with which they articulate particular theories ormethodologies. Finally, and crucially, its well-chosen topics andcontributors have been brought together in a shape that invites readersto think and to explore. Virginia Woolf Noun 1. Virginia Woolf - English author whose work used such techniques as stream of consciousness and the interior monologue; prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group (1882-1941)Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf, Woolf 's assessment of Chaucer,quoted here in Stephanie Trigg's essay on 'Reception:Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries' (p. 531), is pertinent:'There can be no more forcible forc��i��ble?adj.1. Effected against resistance through the use of force: The police used forcible restraint in order to subdue the assailant.2. Characterized by force; powerful. preaching than this where allactions and passions are represented, and instead of being solemnly sol��emn?adj.1. Deeply earnest, serious, and sober.2. Somberly or gravely impressive. See Synonyms at serious.3. Performed with full ceremony: a solemn High Mass.4. exhorted we are left to stray and stare and make out a meaning forourselves.' Julia Boffey Queen Mary, University of London It is a research-based university, with a strong international reputation, and with twenty-four percent of its students coming from abroad.[4] Queen Mary incorporates several leading international research units such as the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, the