Chaucer’s Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of Discourse

251 Pages·2000·24.475 MB·English

by  Robert S. Sturges (auth.)

CHAUCER'S PARDONER
AND GENDER THEORY
THE NEW MIDDLE AGES
BONNIE WHEELER
Series Editor
The New Middle Ages presents transdisciplinary studies of medieval
cultures. It includes both scholarly monographs and essay collec
tions.
PUBLISHED BY ST. MARTIN'S PRESS:
H-i>men in the Medieval Islamic H-i>rld: Power, Patronage, and Piety
edited by Gavin R. G. Hambly
The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On Boccaccio's Poetaphysics
by Gregory B. Stone
Presence and Presentation: H-i>men in the Chinese Literati Tradition
by Sherry]. Mou
The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard:
Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century France
by Constant]. Mews
Understanding Scholastic Thought with Foucault
by Philipp W Rosemann
For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth de Burgh
by Frances Underhill
Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages
edited by Cindy L. Carlson and Angela Jane Weisl
Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England
by Mary Dockray-Miller
Listening to Heloise: The Voice of a Twelfth-Century H-i>man
edited by Bonnie Wheeler
The Postcolonial Middle Ages
edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Chaucer's Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of Discourse
by Robert S. Sturges
CHAUCER'S PARDONER
AND GENDER THEORY
BODIES OF DISCOURSE
Robert S. Sturges
Palgrave Macmillan
CHAUCER'S PARDONER AND GENDER THEORY
Copyright © 2000 Robert S. Sturges.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-312-21366-4
All rights reserved. No part of this
book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
N.Y. 10010.
ISBN 978-1-349-61879-8 ISBN 978-1-349-61877-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-61877-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sturges, Robert Stuart, 1953-
Chaucer's Pardoner and gender theory : bodies of discourse I
Robert S. Sturges
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
1. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400. Pardoner's tale. 2. Chaucer,
Geoffrey, d. 1400. Canterbury tales. Prologue. 3. Homosexuality
and literature--England-History-To 1500. 4. Christian pilgrims
and pilgrimages in literature. 5. Gender identity in literature.
6. Storytelling in literature. 7. Body, Human, in literature.
8. Clergy in literature. 9. Sex in literature. I. Title.
PR1868.P3S78 1999
821' .1-dc21 99-27777
CIP
Book design by Letra Libre
First edition: March 2000
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Jim Davidson
leue gram

CONTENTS
Series Editor's Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiii
Preface. The Pardoner in Discourse: Theories, Histories, Methods xv
Introduction. The Pardoner, the Preacher, and (Gender) Politics 1
I. CONTEXTS: THE PARDONER'S
GENDERS, SEXES, EROTIC PRACTICES
1. The Pardoner's Genders: Linguistic and Other 21
2. The Pardoner's (Over-)Sexed Body 35
3. The Pardoner's Different Erotic Practices 47
II. READINGS: BODIES, VOICES, TEXTS
4. The Pardoner Unveiled 63
5. A Speaking and Singing Subject 81
6. The Dismemberment of the Pardoner 107
Conclusions. The Pardoner In and Out of The Canterbury Tales 141
Notes 169
Works Cited 211
Index 225

SERIES EDITOR'S FOREWORD
T
he New Middle Ages contributes to lively transdisciplinary conversa
tions in medieval cultural studies through its scholarly monographs
and essay collections. The series provides focused research in a contempo
rary idiom about specific practices, expressions, and ideologies in the Mid
dle Ages. Robert Sturges' Chaucer's Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies of
Discourse is the fourteenth book in the series. Here Sturges investigates the
fixities and fluidities of fourteenth-century discourses about gender by fo
cusing on its most notably unsettled representative, Chaucer's Pardoner.
This book provides richly sedimented readings of the discoherent and dis
continuous rhetorics of gender and power mapped in the figure of the Par
doner. In this keenly insightful study, Sturges provokes us, among other
things, to examine anew our usual suppositions about Chaucer's notions of
patriarchy and politics.
Bonnie Hlheeler
Southern Methodist University