Title The genre of medieval patience literature : development, duplication, and gender / Robin Waugh

Edition 1st ed Published New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 230 pages) : illustrations Series The new Middle Ages New Middle Ages (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm)) Contents Introduction: Clarissimum in feminis -- The female patience figure as speaker -- The female patience figure as frozen speaker -- The female patience figure as counterfeit -- The female patience figure as frozen empress -- The female patience figure at an extreme -- The female patience figure as shrine Summary This project records the development and history of medieval patience literature by identifying and mapping the important shift in early patience literature from a focus on male and female sufferers to a focus more on female sufferers in particular. The argument employs feminist revisions of genre-theory to show how specific works fit into the evolution of the genre, and identifies and defines the important concept of counterfeit consciousness. The book first defines the genre through examples of patience literature from the martyrologies to the Legenda aurea, where one may note the emergence of feminine space as a representation of women's expression. Then, through a revision of the conventional understanding of Grisilde's passivity, the book shows how Chaucer's Clerk's Tale works as a sophisticated reductio ad absurdum of the patience genre and how Christine de Pizan's Griselda-tale works as a precise satire of male understandings of patience literature and of knightly romances. The project then examines Margery Kempe's trials as examples of the displacement of feminine space into Margery's own version of a shrine. No-one has previously described the genre of patience literature, while this book, intended primarily for an academic audience, increases recognition of specific roles for women in the Middle Ages, consolidates a number of innovative research trends, and makes an important contribution to literary history Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism Women and literature -- England -- History -- To 1500 Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism. Patience in literature. Sex role in literature. Literary studies: classical, early & medieval -- c 1000 CE to c 1500. Feminism & feminist theory -- c 1000 CE to c 1500. LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Literature. English literature -- Middle English Literature, Medieval Patience in literature Sex role in literature Women and literature Engelsk litteratur -- historia. Kvinnor och litteratur. Könsroller i litteraturen. England Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780230391871 0230391877 9781349351787 1349351784

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