A Companion to Chaucer ed. by Peter Brown

Abstract

REVIEWS theory is borne out: only computerized approaches can keep track, and facilitate study, of significant ‘‘lexical isolates’’ including ‘‘hapax legomena ’’ ‘‘nonce-formations’’ and ‘‘neologisms’’ (pp. 228–29). The final essay of the section, and of the festschrift, is Garland Cannon ’s ‘‘The Innovative Attraction of English for Modern Japanese and German.’’ Cannon illustrates convincingly (and, indeed, surprisingly) how often words commonly found in contemporary English usage have arrived there via a filter of Japanese progenitors. To give a single but familiar example: ‘‘Pac-Man’’ comes into English from Japanese ‘‘pakupaku ,’’ meaning ‘‘munch, munch,’’ with the addition of ‘‘man’’ from English. As one might expect, the influence of Japanese of this kind on English is greatest in the area of computer toys and gear. German, like Japanese, is becoming more like English in certain ways, but as is not the case with Japanese, there is little reverse influence of German on English. Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon is, then, a tribute to Whitney Bolton, one which helps remind us of the substantial contribution he has made, through his teaching and scholarship, to a variety of fields. Editors Boenig and Davis have brought together a distinguished body of work, each piece interesting in itself, and—like Bolton’s own work—valuable in polyvalent ways. For Chaucerians, obviously the essays of Part 1 and the first of Part 3 hold the strongest immediate attraction; but there is much to discover throughout this festschrift, and much reason to take it home. R. F. Yeager University of North Carolina, Asheville Peter Brown, ed. A Companion to Chaucer. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers , 2000. Pp. xvii, 515. $124.95 This collection of original essays—a volume in Blackwell’s nascent ‘‘Companions to Literature and Culture’’ series—offers introductory and bibliographic overviews of key concepts germane to Chaucer studies. Seeking to engage readers on all levels with varied materials on the cultural contexts of medieval literature in general and Chaucer in particular , the collection, according to editor Peter Brown, is designed to offer 377 ................. 9680$$ CH16 11-01-10 12:36:59 PS STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER original research for established scholars while also supplying accessible and reliable coverage of key contexts for less-acquainted students (‘‘we are all students,’’ Brown observes, ‘‘and, the further advanced, the more aware of what we do not know’’ [p. 2]). As is typical of companion-type collections, this volume is designed to contribute to our understanding of Chaucer’s major and minor works in relation to a wide range of complementary , and often interconnected topics. The volume contains new contributions from twenty-nine well-established British and North American scholars, loosely affiliated, according to Brown’s introductory essay, ‘‘The Idea of a Chaucer Companion,’’ by their particular concern with the circumstances in which Chaucer lived and worked: literary matters, such as genre and manuscript production; literary milieux, including , for example, social organization and London politics; medieval structures of thought, feeling, and imagination, described here as forming Chaucer’s ‘‘operating assumptions’’; and the rather open-ended category of ‘‘other expressions of social practice’’ (p. 3). The table of contents does not reflect Brown’s categorical framework, however; the chapters are instead alphabetized, encyclopedia-style, according to brief and sometimes ambiguous descriptive labels. Several chapters dispersed throughout the volume consider literary genre or mode and provide a sound foundation for students to approach Chaucer’s works first and foremost in the context of literary definition and application. Especially solid is Laura Kendrick’s ‘‘Comedy,’’ which considers the ‘‘goliardic play’’ (p. 95) of text and audience, and offers an insightful take on The Miller’s Tale’s closing hilarity, generated by and through the incongruous exchange of bottoms and faces. Caroline D. Eckhardt’s ‘‘Genre’’ offers a straightforward take on the dozen or so genres throughout Chaucer’s work, and considers how our awareness of generic traits entails ‘‘the arousal and fulfillment of expectations’’ with regard to ‘‘generic invocations and oscillations’’ (p. 192). Advanced students will likely find Roger Ellis’s ‘‘Translation’’—a careful discussion of Chaucer’s awareness of linguistic and cultural relativity and the politics of translation, as well as the various identities of the translator (compiler , commentator, reader)—informative and stimulating...