Inventing Womanhood: Gender and Language in Later Middle English Writing

Author / Editor
Williams, Tara.

Title
Inventing Womanhood: Gender and Language in Later Middle English Writing

Published
Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2011.

Physical Description
vii, 209 pp.

Description
Argues that Middle English writers employ gendered terms at moments when they are probing new ideas about women's roles; writers "invented womanhood" to describe women's experiences beyond their relation to men. KnT and ClT use gendered language to examine how Emelye, Hippolyta, and Grisilde test whether women can be simultaneously powerful and feminine. Chaucer uses "gendered language to examine how characters reconcile feminine virtues and social power." Comments on FranT, MLT, PrT, SNT, WBT, ABC, Anel, BD, HF, LGW, PF, and TC.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism
Language and Word Studies