Authority, Authenticity, and the Repression of Heloise

Author / Editor
Newman, Barbara.

Title
Authority, Authenticity, and the Repression of Heloise

Published
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 22 (1992): 121-57.

Description
Because Heloise is canonized in Jankyn's "Book of Wikked Wyves" between Jerome and Ovid, her authentic voice is overwhelmed by their reinforcing discourses; the Wife of Bath is similarly contained between Chaucer and Jankyn. Chaucer and Jean de Meun point to a neglected Heloise fully immersed in learning, an "auctor" whose authority could be cited in complex and ambiguous ways."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.