Language as the Site of Revolt in Medieval and Early Modern England: Speaking as a Woman

Author / Editor
Bodden, M. C.

Title
Language as the Site of Revolt in Medieval and Early Modern England: Speaking as a Woman

Published
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Physical Description
xvii, 276 pp.

Series
The New Middle Ages.

Description
Historical analysis of early women's speech; describes early modern England's regulations of women's speech and women's subversive strategies to represent themselves as subjects in masculine discourses (including court depositions). Examines speech and silence in ClT; argues that Harry Bailly addresses the Clerk in the same ways women are addressed, and the Clerk code-switches in order to question how linguistic ideologies enforce gender norms. ClT challenges the association of women's silence with femininity and sexuality.

Chaucer Subjects
Clerk and His Tale
Language and Word Studies