Masculinities in Chaucer

How does Chaucer portray the various male pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales? How manly is Troilus? To what extent can the spirit and terminology of recent feminist criticism inform the study of Chaucer's men? Is there such a thing as a distinct `Chaucerian masculinity', or does it appear in a multitude of different forms? These are some of the questions that the contributors to this ground-breaking and provocative volume attempt to answer, using a diversity of critical methods and theories. Some look at the behaviour of noble or knightly men; some at clerics, or businessmen, or churls; others examine the so-called `masculine' qualities of female characters, and the `feminine' qualities of male characters. Topics include the Host's bourgeois masculinity; the erotic triangles operating in the Miller's Tale; why Chaucer `diminished' the sexuality of Sir Thopas; and whether Troilus is effeminate, impotent or an example of true manhood.
PETER G. BEIDLERis the Lucy G.Moses Distinguished Professor of English at Lehigh University. Contributors: MARK ALLEN, PATRICIA CLARE INGHAM, MARTIN BLUM, DANIEL F. PIGG, ELIZABETH M. BIEBEL, JEAN E. JOST, CAROL EVEREST, ANDREA ROSSI-REDER, GLENN BURGER, PETER G. BEIDLER, JEFFREY JEROME COHEN, DANIEL RUBEY, MICHAEL D. SHARP, PAUL R. THOMAS, STEPHANIE DIETRICH, MAUD BURNETT MCINERNEY, DEREK BREWER

Reviews

`Masculinity' is variously defined, a category so rich that its careful definition must necessarily enrich our reading of Chaucer. If there is one concern that unites these essays, it is the wish to challenge orthodoxies: new perspectives on familiar passages abound. MEDIUM AEVUM

Details

First Published: 05 Feb 1998
13 Digit ISBN: 9780859914345
Pages: 264
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Series: Chaucer Studies
Subject: Medieval Literature
BIC Class: DSBB

Details updated on 07 Feb 2012

Contents

• 1  `Mirth and Bourgeois Masculinity in Chaucer's Host'.
• 2  `Homosociality and Creative Masculinity in the 'Knight's Tale''.
• 3  `Negotiating Masculinities: Erotic Triangles in the 'Miller's Tale''.
• 4  `Performing the Perverse: The Abuse of Masculine Power in the `Reeve's Tale''.
• 5  `A Wife, a Batterer, a Rapist: Representations of `Masculinity' in the `Wife of Bath's Prologue' and `Tale'.
• 6  `Ambiguous Brotherhood in the `Friar's Tale' and `Summoner's Tale''.
• 7  `Sight and Sexual Performance in the `Merchant's Tale''.
• 8  `Male Movement and Female Fixity in the `Franklin's Tale' and `Il Filocolo''.
• 9  `Doing What Comes Naturally: The `Physician's Tale' and the Pardoner'.
• 10  `Troilus's `Gentil' Manhood'.
• 11  `Diminishing Masculinity in Chaucer's `Tale of Sir Thopas''.
• 12  `The Five Wounds of Melibee's Daughter: Transforming Masculinities'.
• 13  `Reading Chaucer's `Manly Man': The Trouble with Masculinity in the `Monk's Prologue' and `Tale'.
• 14  ``Have ye no mannes herte?': Chauntecleer as Cock-Man in the `Nun's Priest's Tale'.
• 15  ``Slydyng' Masculinity in the Four Portraits of Troilus'.
• 16  ``Is this a mannes herte?': Unmanning Troilus through Ovidian Allusion'.
• 17  `Troilus's `Gentil' Manhood'.