Philomela Accuses.

Author / Editor
Rushton, Cory.

Title
Philomela Accuses.

Published
Rushton, Cory, ed. Disability and Medieval Law: History, Literature, Society (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2013), pp. 157-73.

Description
Investigates several motifs in the LGW account of Philomela: victimhood, "inappropriate sovereignty," muteness, orality and legal witnessing, "tapestry-as-prosthesis," rape as a property crime, and lack of legal remedy, arguing that Chaucer's tale evinces "interest in women's control over their own bodily integrity" simultaneously acknowledging that this interest is "ultimately unproductive when . . . not matched with action." Includes comments on PrT and on Ovid's and Gower's versions of the story of Philomela.

Contributor
Rushton, Cory, ed.

Alternative Title
Disability and Medieval Law: History, Literature, Society

Chaucer Subjects
Legend of Good Women
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Prioress and Her Tale