Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 8832
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Wilson , Janet.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Margery and Alison: Women on Top [The author reads the fifteenth-century mystic Margery Kempe and the fictional character of Alison (Chaucer’s Wife of Bath) as flamboyant women who both cross social boundaries and disrupt social norms. Although their voices are mediated through men (scribes in the case of Margery and the author Chaucer in the case of Alison), these women can be read as examples of the carnivalesque: They both challenge patriarchal authority and subvert social hierarchies through their parodic or theatrical speech. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays.  Edited by Sandra J. McEntire.  Garland Publishing, 1992.  Pages 223 - 227.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Carnivalesque Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poet- Canterbury Tales- Wife of Bath’s Prologue Chaucer, Geoffrey, Poet- Canterbury Tales- Wife of Bath’s Tale Hierarchy Kempe, Margery, Mystic Literature- Prose Patriarchy Social Change Wife of Bath (Literary Figure) Wome
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14- 15
  • Primary Evidence:
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  • Table:
  • Abstract:
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  • Author's Affiliation: University of Otago
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0815303785