Monstrous Women in Middle English Romance: Representations of Mysterious Female Power

Description: Explores treatments of monstrous women in Middle English romance, particularly Melusine, Medea, and Constance. Argues that Chaucer adapts the romance to critique the suffering, violent treatment, and "liminality" of women within the genre. Depicting Medea and Constance as neither monstrous nor violent and focusing on the violence or betrayal committed against them, Chaucer shows that the "good" woman of medieval romance is forced into one dimension and can exist only as a passive vessel acted upon by those around her. Includes a Foreword by Andrew Galloway.