Conduct Shameful and Unshameful in 'The Franklin's Tale'

Description: Interrogates post-Enlightenment understandings of shame, and argues that in FranT shame negotiates continua rather than dichotomies (men/women, courtly love/marriage, and public/private). Read in light of conduct literature, Arveragus's claims and actions expose the "gender asymmetries in companionate marriage," while Dorigen's complaint, by mimicking devotional programs, defers shame and she acquires "a queer female masculinity." The Franklin is "an effective but feminized manager of shame," and the "affective labor of shame" in his Tale regulates "selves within the middling household."

Chaucer Subjects: Franklin and His Tale; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations