The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization
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| Language: | English |
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University of Toledo Honors Theses / OhioLINK
2014
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=uthonors1386937456 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-uthonors13869374562021-08-03T06:21:06Z The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization Liming , Heather M. Literature In this paper, I explore Chaucer's Legend of Good Women and the authorial anxieties the text demonstrates over rewriting medieval antifeminist tales which, according to convention, typically place women in submission to their monstrous male counterparts. Early literary scholarship on this text regards Chaucer's frustration and inability to finish the Legend as a reflection of his boredom with the topic, but, following the work of recent feminist literary scholarship, I argue that Chaucer's continuous return to the text is evidence of his dedication and interest in the Legend and, more specifically, to the subject of the female voice. I assert that Chaucer's ironic tone within the dream vision prologue situates himself against anti-feminist authorities and allows him to tease out the sympathetic voices within the remaining legendary tales. Indeed, I argue, contrary to many critics, that Chaucer is in fact "weminis friend," as Gavin Douglas suggested in the early sixteenth century, although the Legend of Good Women experiments with the motif of unending suffering that renders women unable to live outside of patriarchal governance. In defense of my claims, I provide a close reading of the ironic dialogue between the God of Love, Alceste, and Chaucer the Dreamer; I give special consideration to the pathetic depiction of Thisbe and Philomela; I explore Chaucer’s re-investigation of women’s voice and its textual representation in the Wife of Bath's Prologue; and, finally, I align my reading with the female reception records which detail courtly women's role in the readership, compilation, and circulation of the text. 2014 English text University of Toledo Honors Theses / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=uthonors1386937456 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=uthonors1386937456 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
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NDLTD |
| language |
English |
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NDLTD |
| topic |
Literature |
| spellingShingle |
Literature Liming , Heather M. The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization |
| author |
Liming , Heather M. |
| author_facet |
Liming , Heather M. |
| author_sort |
Liming , Heather M. |
| title |
The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization |
| title_short |
The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization |
| title_full |
The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization |
| title_fullStr |
The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The Legend of Good Women and Chaucer's Woman-Friendly Corpus: Exposing and Challenging Antifeminism and Gender Polarization |
| title_sort |
legend of good women and chaucer's woman-friendly corpus: exposing and challenging antifeminism and gender polarization |
| publisher |
University of Toledo Honors Theses / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=uthonors1386937456 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT limingheatherm thelegendofgoodwomenandchaucerswomanfriendlycorpusexposingandchallengingantifeminismandgenderpolarization AT limingheatherm legendofgoodwomenandchaucerswomanfriendlycorpusexposingandchallengingantifeminismandgenderpolarization |
| _version_ |
1719435234099855360 |