Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of English Language and Literature, August 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--Odense universitet, 1985. / Summary in Danish. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. [383]-394).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2005. / UMI number: 3200047. Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-134). Also available on the Internet.

This thesis considers time and narrative play in dream poems and framed narratives. It begins with a chapter on the history of time perceptions and time-telling, and explores how ideas about time influenced medieval writers. It also surveys some modern views on the history of time-measurement a nd its influences on culture and the collective consciousness. Chapter two, after analysing the treatment of time in the Roman de la Rose, surveys some of the ways in which modern criticism has evaluated and conceived the genre of secular dream literature that developed from the Roman de la Rose. Chapter three examines the innovative use of the convention of beginning a poem with a seasonal opening and theorises that this becomes a `language' open to adaptation and variation. Chapter four looks in detail at Froissart's L`Orloge amoureus and discusses the clock as a new object which, contrary to the views of cultural historians, was embraced by medieval writers, religious and secular, to symbolise a range of virtues, qualities and ideas. I argue that the clock inspired creativity rather than heralding a rationalisation of the mind that would stifle imaginative responses to this new technology. Chapter five explores metafictional and self-reflexive devices in Froissart's Joli Buisson de Jonece and Chaucer's House of Fame. I consider how these texts play with narrative time and sequence by writing the genesis of the text into the poem. Finally, chapter six examines ideas of closure in medieval dream poetry and looks specifically at the reciprocity and inconclusiveness of the Judgement poems of Guillaume de Machaut. Because the second poem reverses the decision of the first poem, it brings into question the authority of the text and the unity of the authorial voice.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universidad de Oviedo, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-357).

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Columbia. / "RPL 14." Original ed. issued in series: Columbia University studies in Romance philology and literature. Bibliography: p. 252-267.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Columbia. / "RPL 14." Original ed. issued in series: Columbia University studies in Romance philology and literature. Bibliography: p. 252-267.

Habilitationsschrift--Würzburg. / Includes index. Bibliography: p. [173]-202.

Literary texts of medieval England feature trees as essential to the individual and communal identity as it intersects with nature, and the compelling qualities and organic processes associated with trees help vernacular writers interrogate the changing nature of this character. The early depiction of trees demonstrates an intimacy with nature that wanes after the tenth-century monastic revival, when the representation of trees as living, physical entities shifts toward their portrayal as allegorical vehicles for the Church's didactic use. With the emergence of new social categories in the late Middle Ages, the rhetoric of trees moves beyond what it means to forge a Christian identity to consider the role of a ruler and his subjects, the relationship between humans and nature, and the place of women in society. Taking as its fundamental premise that people in wooded regions develop a deep-rooted connection to trees, this dissertation connects medieval culture and the physical world to consider the variety of ways in which Anglo-Saxon and post-Norman vernacular manuscripts depict trees. A personal identification with trees, a desire for harmony between society and the environment, and a sympathy for the work of trees lead to the narrator's transformation in the Dream of the Rood. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Junius 11 manuscript, illustrated in Genesis A, Genesis B, and manuscript images, scrutinizes the Anglo-Saxon Christian's relationship and responsibility to God in the aftermath of the Fall. As writers transform trees into allegories in works like Genesis B and Geoffrey Chaucer's Parson's Tale, the symbolic representations retain their spontaneous, organic processes to offer readers a visual picture of the Christian interior-the heart. Whereas the Parson's Tale promotes personal and radical change through a horticultural narrative starring the Tree of Penitence and Tree of Vices, Chaucer's Knight's Tale appraises the role of autonomous subjects in a tyrannical system. Forest laws of the post-Norman period engender a bitter polemic about the extent of royal power to appropriate nature, and the royal grove of the Knight's Tale exposes the limitations of monarchical structures and masculine control and shapes a pragmatic response to human failures.

Text in Afrikaans / During the past decade various studies have been conducted on the medieval bestiary and simultaneously much has been written on the life and work of the medieval scholar and writer, Jacob van Maerlant. Van Maerlant's famous encyclopaedic work, Der Naturen B/oeme (Book of Nature) has been thoroughly investigated in recent literary studies, though little has been done to identify this work as encyclopaedic narrative. The term, encyclopaedic narrative, is relatively unknown in Western literature and therefore demands the research which is conducted in this thesis. In the course of this study, the genre of encyclopedic narrative is investigated and the Naturen 8/oeme is identified as a member of this exclusive genre. Edward Mendelson's article "From Dante to Pynchon" (1976) serves as the starting point for this study, from where it continues its investigation into the works of Jacob Van Maerlant. Van Maerlant's Der Naturen 8/oeme is compared to a unique set of qualities for the encyclopaedic narrative in which corresponding points are identified. From this investigation it is shown that Der Naturen B/oeme qualifies as a member of the genre, encyclopaedic narrative. / Baie navorsing oor die Middeleeuse Bestiarium is reeds gedurende die afgelope dekade gedoen en baie is geskryf oor die lewe en werk van Jacob van Maerlant. Alhoewel sy natuurboek, Der Naturen Bloeme, baie belangstelling in die liter~re w6r~ld ontlok, is daar nog weinig gedoen om Der Naturen Bloeme as ensiklopediese narratief te identifiseer. Die relatiewe onbekendheid van die begrip ensiklopediese narratief in die Westerse literatuur dien as aansporing tot die ondersoeke wat in hierdie skripsie vervat word. In hierdie studie sal die genre van die ensiklopediese narratlef bespreek word. Der Naturen Bloeme word as voorbeeld gebruik. Die ensiklopediese narratief word bespreek na aanleiding van die artikel "From Dante to Pynchon" (1976) waarin Mendelson die term omskryf en riglyne daarstel vir die tipering daarvan as genre. Uit die ondersoek blyk dit dat die ensiklopediese narratief 'n genre is wat erkenning behoort te kry in die literêre wêreld. Die studie ondersoek ook die lewe en werk van Jacob van Maerlant wat as lnformatikus gedurende die MiddeJeeue groot bekendheid verwerf het. Sy omvangryke ensiklopediese werk, Der Naturen Bloeme, word telkens getoets aan die hand van kenmerke vir die ensiklopediese narratief en die raakpunte word uitgewys. Uit die ondersoek word aangetoon dat Der Naturen Bloeme as ensiklopediese narratief erken kan word. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)