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This volume presents a feminist approach to the Canterbury Tales, investigating the ways in which the tensions and contradictions found within the broad contours of medieval gender discourse write themselves into Chaucers text. Four discourses of medieval masculinity are examined, which simultaneously reinforce and resist one another: heroic or chivalric, Christian, courtly love, and emerging humanist models. Each chapter attempts to negotiate both contemporary assumptions of gender construction, and essentialist readings of gender common to the middle ages; throughout, the author argues that the Canterbury Talesoffers a sophisticated discussion of masculinity, and that it strongly indicts some of the prevalent medieval notions of ideal masculinity while still remaining firmly homosocial and homophobic. The book concludes that on the question of gender issues, the Talesare best studied as male-authored texts containing representations and negotiations revealing much about late medieval masculinities.Dr ANNE LASKAYAteaches in the English Department at the University of Oregon.
List of contents
Dominant medieval discourses on gender; pervavsive competition and fragile control - Chaucer's appraisal of masculine stereotypes in the frame narrative; the heroic discourse - the "Knight's Tale"; men in love and competition - the "Miller's Tale" and the "Merchant's Tale"; competing ideas - Chaucer's clerks and academic disputes; spirituality and competition; masculinity, representations of ideal femininity in men's narratives, and the challenge; "female" narrators and Chaucer's masquerade - the second Nun, the Prioress, and the Wife of Bath.
