Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Home
What is Feminae?
What's Indexed?
Subjects
Broad Topics
Journals
Essays
All Image Records
Contact Feminae
SMFS
Other Resources
Admin (staff only)
There are 45,379 records currently in Feminae
Quick Search
Advanced Search
Article of the Month
Translation of the Month
Image of the Month
Special Features
Record Number:
8704
Author(s)/Creator(s):
Mann , Jill.
Contributor(s):
Title:
Wife-Swapping in Medieval Literature [in order to understand better the relationships among Dorigen, Arveragus, and Aurelius, the author considers the exchange of wives between friends in a number of earlier medieval texts, including the Latin poem "Lantfrid and Cobbo," the many versions of "Amis and Amiloun," the thirteenth-century romance "Athis and Prophilias," Boccaccio's story in the "Decameron" concerning Titus and Gisippus, the story of Rollo and Resus in Walter Map's "De Nugis Curialium," and Giovanni Fiorentino's story of Stricca and Galgano in his fourteenth-century collection "Il Pecorone"].
Source:
Viator 32, ( 2001): Pages 93 - 112.
Description:
Article Type:
Journal Article
Subject
(See Also)
:
Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poet- Canterbury Tales- Franklin's Tale
Exchange of Women in Literature
Homosociality in Literature
Lantfrid and Cobbo, Latin Poem
Literature- Verse
Male Friendship in Literature
Marriage in Literature
Wives in Literature
Women in Liter
Award Note:
Geographic Area:
General
Century:
10- 11- 12- 13- 14
Primary Evidence:
Illustrations:
Table:
Abstract:
This article responds to a recent claim by Felicity Riddy that the "gentilesse" exhibited by Arveragus and Aurelius in Chaucer's Franklin's tale is inaccessible to women, since it is class-based and gender-based, and that Dorigen's sexuality is "property which the men propose to pass backwards and forwards between them in order to establish their status." Assuming that the background for this analysis lies in modern work on the exchange of women as a means of creating homosocial bonds between men, it surveys the numerous medieval narratives which deal with the exchange of a woman from one man to another. In all these narratives, women are erased, marginalized, or degraded in the interest of male friendship or moral solidarity. The Franklin's Tale forms a striking contrast to this medieval tradition: it is the marriage between Arveragus and Dorigen, not male friendship, that is the important relationship, and it is Dorigen's "trouthe," not her husband's, which is of paramount importance. [Reproduced from the journal website:
http://brepols.metapress.com/content/121213/?p=afdbc79947a4444b9739ff05942fde63&pi=0
]
Related Resources:
Author's Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Conference Info:
- , -
Year of Publication:
2001.
Language:
English
ISSN/ISBN:
00835897