Introduction

Miles, Laura Saetveit; Watt, Diane

doi:10.1353/sac.2020.0008

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In short, Chaucer denies neither men nor women the privilege of being morally good or bad; his Tales overlooks neither men's agency nor women's. Thus, it is unfeasible to view Chaucer as a feminist or masculinist, but as a fence‐sitter authority who challenges “not only the canon, but also our anachronistic modern understandings of reading practices, which often seem to privilege masculinist subjectivity” (Miles & Watt, 2020, p. 290). The poet sides with neither men nor women, but establishes a gender‐opaque zone that does not have any gender hierarchies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Chaucer's gender‐oriented philosophy in The Canterbury Tales

Zuraikat

2023

Literature Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The manipulation of gender in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is utterly opaque. While "The Knight's Tale" potentially entices readers to think that Chaucer defines a woman regarding her relationship to man, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" suggests that the poet views a woman as an independent figure whose identity has nothing to do with man. This apparently controversial portrait of gender causes some critics to read Chaucer as a pro-woman individual; simultaneously, it inspires other critics to view the poet as anti-feminist. Such debate may cause readers to misjudge Chaucer's multifaceted approach towards gender as well as other hypersensitive topics, thus adding to the atmosphere of complexity and lack of clarity that dominates The Tales.Accordingly, this paper revisits Chaucer's gender-oriented philosophy in The Tales sieving what is conjectured by the poem's critics from what is said by the poet himself regarding gender. The paper concludes that Chaucer has never had the choice to overtly be or not to be the friend of woman but has always adopted a fence-sitting strategy concerning the question of gender due to his sociopolitical status.The paper confirms that Chaucer's viewpoint of women is neither feminist nor anti-feminist but a realistic amalgamation that mirrors the opaque gender culture of England in the fourteenth century.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Chaucer's gender‐oriented philosophy in The Canterbury Tales

Zuraikat

2023

Literature Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Introduction

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Chaucer's gender‐oriented philosophy in The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer's gender‐oriented philosophy in The Canterbury Tales

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About