ye olde
Direction of Inquiry
 How does examining gender influence the genres of
romance and fabliaux in the Canterbury Tales?
 Additionally, what are the interactions between feminist
and antifeminist perspectives in terms of genre?
 “My question in this study is how romances [and
fabliaux]“perform” gender rather than the reverse—how
they construe masculinity and femininity, how they work
out the paradigm of difference and the challenge of
intimacy, and how they relate gender to other expressions
of social identity.” (Crane 12)
 Does this in any way conflict with Chaucer’s intent?
Feminism and Antifeminism
 Original Sin: Death and woe were considered “Our
“penal conditions,” as the fatal consequence of Adam’s
consenting to the temptation of Eve. This also was
widely understood as the dissolution of virilitas into
“effeminacy” […] Literally, Adam the first husband
abrogated his responsibility when he allowed his
moral authority to be swayed by Eve. Allegorically,
Reason consented to the seductions of the Flesh.”
(Miller 400)
What does it mean to deviate?
 The Wicked Woman (From Ecclesiasticus XXV):
 “23. And there is no anger above the anger of a
woman. It will be more agreeable to abide with
a lion and a dragon, than to dwell with a wicked
woman[…] 31. A wicked woman abateth the
courage, and maketh a heavy countenance, and
a wounded heart. 32. Feeble hands, and
disjointed knees, a woman that doth not make
her husband happy. 33. From the woman came
the beginning of sin, and by her we all die”
(Miller 406)
The Marriage Ceremony
 Her vow:
 “I N. take thee N. to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from
this day forth, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness,
and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us depart,
according to God’s holy ordinance: And thereto I give thee my
troth.” (Miller 375)
 Her Blessing (the Good Woman):
 “May she be amiable to her husband as Rachel, wise as Rebecca,
long-lived and faithful as Sara […] May she be bashful and grave,
reverential and modest, […] May she be fruitful in child-bearing,
innocent and of good report, attaining to a desired old age, seeing
her children’s children unto the third and fourth generation.”
(Miller 381)
The Feminist?
 When we consider that such desire for the reform—not the
overturning—of patriarchy is represented as a woman’s desire, it
is even more apparent that this is a masculine dream […] The
Wife expresses a dream of masculine reading that is not
antifeminist and a feminine relation to the condition of being
read that is not antimasculinist—but she does so after having
been bruised and battered, permanently injured by that clerk
Jankyn, in the concussive renovation of patriarchal discourse.
(Dinshaw 117)
This suggests that the Wife’s character is not strictly a feminist but
perhaps resides in more of a third space. However, our
perspective provides us room to look at how this third space
created by her tale opens the door for us to critique and
understand the sexual and gender politics in Chaucer’s writing—
especially when we consider genre.
Elements of Fabliaux
 The Ill-Fitting Coat of the Fabliaux:
 The fairy who made it put the power to discover false ladies in the cloth.
If the woman who puts it on has betrayed her husband in any way, it will
never fit correctly. And the same is true for maidens who have wronged
their lovers; the coat will never fit but will be either too long or too short.
(Bloch 22)
The above passage is from “Du Mantel mautaillié” which features over one
hundred public fittings of this coat on various women. The idea of
tailoring is therefore inseparable from narration of the story.
In this sense, the narration of the fabliaux also must go
through a sort of fitting, its shortfalls can also be signified
by either its length or brevity, and by what is shown, or
concealed.
Fabliaux Narratives
 The Economy of clothing
 Not only does the garment which should cover work instead to
discover or expose […] but it constitutes an empty center of the
story which it so strongly structures (Bloch 23).
 Narratives of Lack
 Fabliaux are all in some extended sense narratives of
lack. Someone always wants something, whether sex,
food, or money (Bloch 22).
Chaucer’s Fabliaux
Certainly, we see the narratives of lack and economies of clothing
thriving in Chaucer’s use of fabliaux, and these surface most
immediately in the Miller’s Tale with variation thereafter.
Significant in this is how the notions of the good and wicked wife
complicate these generic conventions. Undoubtedly, fabliaux by
their nature are antifeminist because more often than not the
woman is the object of desire and does not exhibit positive
feminine virtues.
In a sense, Chaucer uses this genre as a vehicle to establish the
antifeminist traditions that are so linked with the mode both
through the characterizations of women, as well as the length
and quality of his fabliaux, but he also leaves plenty of room to
critique this patriarchy through his other tales.
Elements of Romance
 It had a setting peculiar to itself designed entirely for the
demonstration of individual prowess, chiefly concerned with the
impressing and winning of a lady, and which had no other social
or moral significance. Had the romance not progressed beyond
this point, it is doubtful whether it could have become a serious
genre. (Jackson 178)
Here, Jackson is referring to the writing of Chrétien de Troyes
who wrote in the late 12th Century. Certainly by the time
Chaucer picks up his quill, Romance had evolved to allow
him more liberty to offer up social and historical
commentary. When contemporary readers look at the
conventions of the genre, specifically those having to do
with courtly traditions, we can find further complications
having of gender dynamics in the courtly romance.
Complications of Gender
 Romantic conventions seem to make the knight/lover
subordinate to the lady as he strives to make himself
worthy of her. But through the courtly code stresses the
lover’s ennoblement through love, it frequently masks
motives much more pragmatic and self-focused: the
sought-after lady becomes simply an object of male
desire—in effect, a projection of the male’s most idealized
image of himself. (Bisson 222)
Romance both does and doesn’t preserve the misogynistic
nature of medieval literary culture. Bisson here highlights
the layering of gender-roles implicated in the courtly
romance, however just because the romance still
undoubtedly favors the male does not put him in control.
Rethinking “Gender”
 Despite the dramatized tension, romances depict chivalric
society actively producing its members such that the self is
significantly an aspect of the community. As important to
romances’ version of masculine identity as the tension between
self and society is the process of internalization by which men
incorporate the constraints of community into their own
identities. (Crane 27)
Gender as a social construct is certainly not a new idea for us
but it sheds some interesting light when we read Chaucer’s
romances. Specifically in this genre we find women in
positions of power over men, and this shift can really be
attributed to the predetermined regulations of courtly love
because men are just as bound as women in terms of really
how much self determination both genders truly have.
How then can we read his Romances?
 This genre specifically demonstrates that in some way the
delineation and hierarchy of gender isn’t only something
that’s only detrimental to the women in Chaucer’s tales,
men are also restrained (at least a little bit).
 Especially the Wife’s Tale leaves us in that third space that
isn’t quite feminist, yet we can tell Chaucer is toying with
the idea.
 Certainly we haven’t talked about the later tales yet, but as
you can imagine, Chaucer isn’t quite done with testing the
boundaries of Romance.
Some Conclusions about Genre
 Certainly we cannot overlook the misogynistic nature of literary
culture during Chaucer’s time, yet it is also apparent that he
considers the roles of genders to be a bit more flexible (at least
from a narrative perspective) to present a debate that carries
forward from the first fragment into other tales.
 The themes that are strongest in these genres like the boundaries
for both genders within courtly love traditions and the revealing
nature of clothing also seem to pop up in other tales and
especially in the General Prologue.
 However, although Chaucer questions patriarchy through his
implicitly through his tales, its tenuous to consider his intent to
be that of liberation when his tales inevitably reinforce the male
perspective.
Discussion
Redeploying genre…
 Consider the rules of the fabliaux and romance and
apply them to Chaucer’s General Prologue.
 Where do other narratives of lack surface within the
pilgrims’ tales or characters themselves?
 How are gender roles dictated by the estates/castes of
the pilgrims, and how are pilgrims potentially in
tension with those roles?
The Miller’s and Reeve’s Tales
We’ve really discussed
these tales a lot in
previous classes, but
I’m curious if anyone
has any additional
remarks to add about
the genre of these
tales and potential
complications you see
in terms of gender.
The Knight’s Tale
How are characters’ expression
of gender constrained by the
confines of the courtly
romance?
Do these constraints also
influence the knight and other
“masculine” characters?
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
How can we define the Wife in
terms of feminist and
antifeminist traditions?
What does this tell us about
Chaucer’s intent by employing
the Wife in the way he does?
The Friar, Summoner and Clerk
How can we consider these
tales in terms of generic
conventions and how might
they be classified?
Do some conventions from
other genres bleed into
these tales?
What can we really say about Griselda and the
Clerk’s Tale? What was Chaucer thinking!?
References
•Bisson, Lillian M. Chaucer and the Late Medieval World.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
•Bloch, R. Howard. The Scandal of the Fabliaux. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1986.
•Crane, Susan. Gender and Romance in Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1994.
•Dinshaw, Carolyn. Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics. Madison,
Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
•Jackson, W. T. H. The Challenge of the Medieval Text:
Studies in Genre and Interpretation. Eds. Joan M. Ferrante &
Robert W. Hanning. New York: Columbia University Press,
1985.
•Miller, Robert P., Editor. Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.