Reading Hagiographically : The Legend of Good Women and Its Feminine Audience

Description: Alceste's request for a "legend" of good women and reference to Queen Anne combine to establish the audience of LGW, raising questions about the gender ideology of saints' legends and resisting the "misogynist antiphrasis" recurrent in antifeminist literature. LGW enables misogynist readings but disables those readings through its implied audience. It thereby explores "the differences that an audience [. . .] makes" in understanding the "cultural status" of a text.