Contagion, Sexual Violence, and Communal Healing in Chaucer's "The Physician's Tale" and Gower's "Confessio Amantis."

Author / Editor
Friedman, Sarah.

Title
Contagion, Sexual Violence, and Communal Healing in Chaucer's "The Physician's Tale" and Gower's "Confessio Amantis."

Published
Essays in Medieval Studies 37 (2022): 65-79.

Description
Focuses on two texts that feature violence against women to examine how the violated woman functions as a tool for political change. Both Chaucer and Gower foreground the suffering that men experience in response to the violated female body, leading to communal healing and the reformation of social and political structures.

Chaucer Subjects
Physician and His Tale
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Studies