Abandoned Women: Rewriting the Classics in Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer

Description: Hagedorn emphasizes the variety of versions of classical stories of abandoned women (Statius, Virgil, and Ovid) and the ways they were adapted in medieval tradition (e.g., Dante's "Inferno"; Boccaccio's "Teseida," "Fiammetta," and "Amorosa Visione"; and Chaucer's KnT, TC, and LGW). In Statius's "Thebaid," Boccaccio's "Teseida," and Chaucer's KnT, Theseus tries to correct and channel the aggressions of the Theban royal family, despite hints of corruption in his past. In LGW (Ariadne), Theseus reflects his dubious past; in Anel, the amorous past of Arcite parallels Theseus's. Hagedorn explores relationships with "Heroides" elsewhere in LGW, arguing that the Dido account indicates more than one way to tell a story. TC reads "Heroides" subversively, since its tales of abandoned women in TC underly the abandonment of Troilus, a man.

Chaucer Subjects: Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.; Troilus and Criseyde; Legend of Good Women; Knight and His Tale