Chaucer's Women: Nuns, Wives and Amazons

Martin, P.

In this challenging study Priscilla Martin investigates the subjects of women, sex and gender in Chaucer's poetry. She argues convincingly that these are Chaucer's major subjects and that he presents them as an area of human experience fraught with problems. Women, instead of producing texts and meanings themselves, are trapped in the books and meanings of others, and so the Madonna and the courtly heroine, the nun and the wife, are familiar but questionable images of constructed femininity. '...an intelligent, sensitive, fresh and close reading which focuses upon Chaucer's women ... unconventional and subtle' - John J.McGavin, Times Higher Education Supplement

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 1996-07-12

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9780333641422

DOI: 10.1057/9780230378636

Dimensions: 216cm x140cm

Pages: 254