Performative Passivity and Fantasies of Masculinity in the Merchant's Tale

Author / Editor
Crocker, Holly A.

Title
Performative Passivity and Fantasies of Masculinity in the Merchant's Tale

Published
Chaucer Review 38 : 178-98, 2003.

Description
The comedy in MerT is produced by May herself, whose "conduct demonstrates that the feminine passivity upon which the masculine performance of agency depends is of course an act." May exposes the ridiculous nature of all claims to masculine authority, and hence Chaucer demonstrates the collaboration of men and women to make fictions of gender convincing.

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale.