Chaucerian Consent: Women, Religion, and Subjection in Late Medieval England

FAIN: FA-50457-04

Elizabeth Robertson
Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO 80303-1058)

In an interdisciplinary study that brings insights gleaned from the study of theology, law, history, literary criticism, and literary theory, I propose to demonstrate Chaucer's assertion of the legitimacy of the female subject in his representations of women. The book has two purposes: to provide an historical and theological context that will explain and resolve the critical debate about the passivity or agency of Chaucer's characters, and to delineate the origins and contours of the divided female self in late medieval England.