Women's 'Pryvete,' May, and the Privy: Fissures in the Narrative Voice in the 'Merchant's Tale,' 1944-86
- Author / Editor
- Rose, Christine [M.]
Women's 'Pryvete,' May, and the Privy: Fissures in the Narrative Voice in the 'Merchant's Tale,' 1944-86
- Published
- Chaucer Yearbook 4 (1997): 61-77.
- Description
- A feminist reading of MerT as a diptych in which sympathy for May as the victim of marital rape is replaced by response to her as a fabliau shrew. May's reading and disposal of Damyan's letter are a "fissure" that marks her transformation and reflects a "fear of the outbreak of the feminine," contained by fabliau conventions.
- May's literacy, her connections with the raped Proserpina, and rhetorical instability enable Chaucer to expose patriarchal discourse and to explore a poetics of gender difference.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Merchant and His Tale.