Transgender and the Chess Queen in Chaucer's "Book of the Duchess."

Published: Jenny Adams and Nancy Mason Bradbury, eds. Medieval Women and Their Objects (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017), pp. 248-66.

Description: Considers BD and the metaphor of chess, particularly the way in which the rules of the game are remediated in the action of the poem. Looks at gender-crossing in relation to BD, but transcends previous arguments focusing on the chess allegory. Considers the game's "polychronic meanings" as a model for other medieval chess scenes. Claims that the queen's return as the male pawn links reanimation with gender fluidity, as does her alternate title as "fers."