Wednesday A friend the other day asked where my ideas come from, especially when I apply a passage from one century to incidents in another. Yesterday, for instance, I said that Trump confidant Roger Stone reminded me of a passage in Herman Melville’s Confidence Man. So how did that enter my head? To answer, let […]
Tag Archives: Geoffrey Chaucer
How I Make Literary Connections
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged blogging, Confidence Man, Herman Melville, Restoration comedies, Twelfth Night, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The L. A. Rams and Chaucer’s Miller
Tuesday I’m experiencing déjà vu after seeing the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs. When I was a teenager and just becoming interested in football, my beloved Minnesota Vikings were always encountering the Los Angeles Rams in playoff games. Then the Rams became the St. Louis Rams, but now they’re the Los Angeles Rams again, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Football, Los Angeles Rams, Miller's Tale, Sports, Super Bowl Comments closed
Teach Chaucer to Address Sexual Assault
Thursday I’ve been talking with Idaho English teacher Glenda Funk, who is proposing a panel for the upcoming NCTE convention (National Council of Teachers of English) on teaching literature in ways that make a tangible difference in students’ lives. After I mentioned how The Wife of Bath’s Prelude and Tale foreground issues of sexual assault, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Laurie Halse Anderson, Rape, sexual assault, Speak, Wife of Bath's Tale Comments closed
Spirituality in Nature
John Gatta’s “Spirit of Place in American Literary Culture” explains why we find certain places, in nature and in civilization, to be infused with spirit.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, Denise Levertov, eco-criticism, Gary Snyder, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, sprit of place, Virgil, Wife of Bath Comments closed
Chaucer Invented St. Valentine’s Day
Chaucer may have invented St. Valentine’s Day as we have come to know it. “Parliament of Fowls” was written to celebrate the occasion, along with a royal wedding.
Riding with Chaucer into the New Year
Base your New Year’s resolutions on your favorite characters. I look to the Wife of Bath.
Chaucer’s Solution for Sexual Assault
What are we to do about all of our sexual assaulters, given that they probably number in the thousands? Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has an answer.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Al Franken, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rose, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Roy Moore, sexual assault, sexual harassment, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale Comments closed
Trump in Chaucer, Shakespeare & Conrad
When compared to people called “dotard” in Chaucer and Shakespeare, Trump fits the insult hurled at him by Kim Jong-un. His statement to African leaders, meanwhile, makes him sound like a “Heart of Darkness” ivory trader.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Africa, Capitalism, Donald Trump, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Kim Jong-un, King Lear, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare Comments closed
A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”
“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged alt-right, As You Like It, Canterbury Tales, Christopher Marlowe, Country Wife, cuckold jokes, cuckolds, cuckservatives, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, Miller's Tale, Othello, William Shakespeare, William Wycherley Comments closed
