CONJUGAL RIGHTS IN FLUX IN MEDIEVAL POETRY【翻译】_the conjugal debt and medieval conon law-CSDN博客

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
May 2014
Ward, Jessica D., Conjugal Rights in Flux in Medieval Poetry. Master of Arts (English), May 2014, 64 pp., references, 59 titles.
This study explores how four medieval poems—the Junius manuscript’s Genesis B and Christ and Satan and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and The Parliament of Fowls—engage with medieval conjugal rights through their depictions of agentive female protagonists. Although many laws at this time sought to suppress the rights of women, especially those of wives’, both pre- and post-conquest poets illustrate women who act as subjects, exercising legal rights. Medieval canon and common law supported a certain amount of female agency in marriage but was not consistent in its understanding of what that was. By considering the shifts in law from Anglo-Saxon and fourteenth century England in relation to wives’ rights and female consent, my project asserts that the authors of Genesis B and Christ and Satan and the late-medieval poet Chaucer position their heroines to defend legislation that supports female agency in matters of marriage. The Anglo-Saxon authors do so by conceiving of Eve’s role in the Fall and harrowing of hell as similar to the legal role of a forespeca. Through Eve’s mimesis of Satan’s rhetoric, she is able to reveal an alternate way of conceiving of the law as merciful instead of legalistic. Chaucer also engages with a woman’s position in society under the law through his representation of Criseyde’s role in her courtship with Troilus in his epic romance, Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer disrupts his audiences’ expectations by placing Criseyde as the more agentive party in her courtship with Troilus and shows that women might hope to the most authority in marriage by withholding their consent. In his last dream vision, The Parliament of Fowls, Chaucer engages again with the importance of female consent in marriage but takes his interrogation of conjugal rights a step further by imagining an alternate legal system through Nature, a female authority who gives equal consideration to all classes and genders.
Copyright 2014 by
Jessica D. Ward
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a great pleasure to express my thanks to my mentors, colleagues, friends, and family who provided their support as I wrote this thesis. I owe an especial debt to my supervisor, Dr. Nicole Smith. This thesis has benefitted greatly from her thorough and copious comments and deep knowledge of medieval literature. Her commitment, passion, and faith in me has been an integral part of my academic success and is of incalculable value to me. I am also grateful to my committee members, Dr. Robert Upchurch, Dr. Jacqueline Vanhoutte, and to Dr. Kevin Curran, who have all been vital to my development as a scholar, also. Their expertise, generosity, and patience is both humbling and inspiring. I am extremely thankful to have had the opportunity to work with such exceptional role models.
My generous colleagues and friends at the University of North Texas have also provided me with an immense amount of guidance. I owe thanks in particular to Amanda Kellogg, Darcy Lewis, and Lauren Rogener, who have all offered me sage advice at different parts of my graduate career.
My utmost debt, though, goes to my husband, George Coffman, who has shown me unconditional support and encouraged me to think about the institution of marriage in the first place.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………iii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………1
CHAPTER 2: EVE AS FORESPECA IN GENESIS B AND CHRIST AND SATAN………….8
CHAPTER 3: LEGAL BODIES IN FLUX IN TROILUS AND CRISEYDE………….…...…24
CHAPTER 4: CONJUGAL RIGHTS RE-IMAGINED THROUGH FEMALE
‘SENTENCE’ IN CHAUCER’S PARLIAMENT OF FOWLS…………………………..40
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………..57
REFERENCE LIST…………………………………………………………………………...61