January's Genesis: Biblical Exegesis and Chaucer's Merchant's Tale

Author / Editor
Jones, Mike Rodman.

Title
January's Genesis: Biblical Exegesis and Chaucer's Merchant's Tale

Published
LeedsSE 39 (2008): 53-87.

Description
MerT, particularly its marriage encomium, was influenced by exegetical treatments of Eve as "helper," drawn from the Augustinian tradition and from Albertanus of Brescia. Chaucer rewrites these two divergent strands, reverses their interpretations of male and female bodies, and uses their commentaries on Eve, female rationality, and feminine advice to posit a political meaning.

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations