Morrison, Susan Signe.
London and New York : Routledge, 2000.
Studies "medieval perceptions of pilgrimage, gender, and space," discussing literary and historical female pilgrims, their motives, and the effects pilgrimages had on their families and social dynamics. Discusses the shrines at Walsingham and…
Trigg, Stephanie.
In Holly A. Crocker and D. Vance Smith, eds. Medieval Literature: Criticism and Debates (New York; Routledge, 2014), pp. 480-90.
Describes several historical and literary representations of the clothing and ornaments of late-medieval processional "women in groups," commenting on Chaucer's depictions in his works, and focusing on depictions in "The Floure and the Leafe" and in…
Wilson, Katharina M., and Nadia Margolis, eds.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004.
Alphabetical listing of entries related to women in the Middle Ages, with a guide to topics and an index. Volume I (A-J) includes a biographical entry on Alice Chaucer (pp. 159-64) by Karen K. Jambeck, a descriptive entry on Women in the Work of…
Lucas, Angela M.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983.
This book surveys the status, activities, and contributions of medieval women in such medieval documents as wills and charters; in treatises on theological, philosophical, and medical topics; in devotional literature such as sermons and homilies; and…
Olivares Merino, Eugenio M.
Ana Mara Hornero and Mara Pilar Navarro, eds. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of S.E.L.I.M. (Zaragoza: Institucion Fernando el Catolico (CSIC), 2000), pp. 159-68.
Assesses the descriptions of the Knight and Squire in GP for how they reflect differing chivalric views of femininity and, more broadly, wisdom versus pleasure.
Collette, Carolyn P.
John M. Hill, Bonnie Wheeler, and R. F. Yeager, eds. Essays on Aesthetics and Medieval Literature in Honor of Howell Chickering (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2014), pp. 96-114.
Addresses shared tropes, themes, and language of LGW and TC. Presents LGW not as a "failed text" in its incompleteness, but as a work that is "grounded" in the tragedy of TC and that anticipates the "comedic narratives" of CT.
Greenwood, Maria K.
Juliette Dor, ed. A Wyf Ther Was: Essays in Honour of Paule Mertens-Fonck (Liege: University of Liege, 1992), pp. 167-77.
Chaucer's Criseyde in TC and Malory's Elaine and Guenivere in Morte d'Arthur are "modern" in their struggles. Each author illuminates his "diogesis" by narrative use(s) of the heroine(s); both authors "counter reductive views" by providing…
Baird-Lange, Lorrayne Y.,and Thomas A. Copeland, eds.
Youngstown, Ohio: Youngstown State University, 1989 (for 1988)
Twenty-one articles by various hands, including four articles on medieval women. The article by Baird-Lange, "Rutebeuf's 'Li Diz de l'Erberie': A Satire on Dame Trote and Her Tradition" (pp. 356-90), contains information on Trotula, a figure in…
Feminist analysis of FranT. Though the theme of the tale is "gentilesse," none of the three men is gentle, and Dorigen suffers from the egoistic behaviors of Arveragus and Aurelius. Dorigen is not a wise wife but an ordinary woman.
Ando, Shinsuke.
The Images of Women in English Renaissance Literature, ed. by Institute of Renaissance Studies. Renaissance Library, vol. 13 (Tokyo, 1982), pp. 51-75.
Examines descriptions and narratives of Chaucerian women and the developments of the poet's creative genius from the formal rhetorical representations of the stereotypes in his early works to the splendidly mature idiosyncratic women in CT. …
Zangen, Britta.
Britta Zangen, ed. Misogynism in Literature: Any Place, Any Time (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004), pp. 39-58.
Antifeminism is prevalent throughout CT in depictions of women, assumptions about them, and attitudes toward female-male relations. Nevertheless, CT is still considered a "master-piece" of literature, evidence that critics have not completed the work…
Cowen, Janet (M.)
Julia Boffey and Janet Cowen, eds. Chaucer and Fifteenth-Century Poetry. King's College London Medieval Studies, no. 5 (London: King's College Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, 1991), pp. 51-65.
Discusses exemplary use of Medea in classical and medieval traditions, suggesting connections with Boccaccio's De claris mulieribus and Christine de Pisan's Book of the City of Ladies. Also notes comparisons among LGW, Lydgate's versions of the…
Erler, Mary, and Maryanne Kowaleski, eds.
Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1988.
A collection of essays by various hands. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Women and Power in the Middle Ages under Alternative Title.
Pericard-Mea, Denise.
Juliette Dor and Marie-Élisabeth Henneau, eds. Femmes et pèlerinages / Women and Pilgrimages ([Santiago de Compostela]: Compostela Group of Universities, 2007), pp. 25-46.
Discusses female presence and company on pilgrimage routes, examining women's destinations and motivations compared to those of men.
Carroll, Virginia Schaefer.
Medieval Perspectives 3 (1988): 76-88.
MilT and RvT raise the issue of "maistrie" in relation to the economic stability of the family. Women are defined as passive, in terms that equate sexual loyalty and commercial value. Wives "quyte" (repay) their husbands through financial loss and…
Fisher, Sheila.
Roberta L. Krueger, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 150-64.
Argues that Chaucer, the Gawain poet, and Malory use women to define chivalric male identities. The texts of these authors register anxiety about women as "hominis confusio" and marginalize women by marginalizing many of the moments of their greatest…
Meale, Carol M, ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Eight essays on women, literacy, and power in medieval Britain, including discussion of Latin, Anglo-Norman, Welsh,and English materials. Topics include romances, literature for recluses, the social conditions of literacy, female access to literacy,…
Perfetti, Lisa Renée.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
Explores literary representations of women's laughter from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries and examines the contexts that shaped how women told jokes. The Wife of Bath's use of play coincides with Chaucer's own, dramatizing antifeminism as…
Explores the complementary relations between two "fantasies" about women that underlie Chaucer's Marriage Group: clerkly abuse rooted in patristic tradition (particularly Jerome) and courtly idealization rooted in "fin amour" (especially Jean de…
Pearman, Tory Vandeventer.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Theorizes how medieval medical and social discourses link the "categories of 'woman' and 'disabled,'" a linking anchored in the notion that women are defective men. Compares the notion of reproduction in MerT and "Dame Sirith"; punishment of women in…
La Farge, Catherine.
John Simons, ed. From Medieval to Medievalism (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), pp. 69-81.
Emelye and Griselda represent humankind. Theseus and Walter are figures of Boethian Providence, figures who implicate its inscrutability if not its caprice. By obscuring the boundaries of literary genres, Chaucer challenges traditional social,…
Worsfold, Brian J., ed.
Lleida and Catalunya, Spain: Department of English and Linguistics, University of Lleida, 2005.
Thirteen essays by various authors, with an introduction by the editor and a preface by Tavengwa M. Nhongo. Literary topics include Chaucer and modern fiction and poetry. For two essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Women Ageing Through…
