Xanthlppe's SISTERS: ORALITYAND FEMININITY in the LATER MIDDLE AGES
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XANTHlPPE'S SISTERS: ORALITYAND FEMININITY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES by Christine Marie Neufeld Department ofEnglish McGill University, Montreal April 2001 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty ofGraduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements ofthe degree ofDoctor ofPhilosophy © Christine Neufeld 2001 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 canada canada Your fiIfJ VOlAI référenœ The author has granted a non L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence al10wing the exclusive permettant à la National Library ofCanada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies ofthis thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The. author retains ownership ofthe L'auteur conselVe la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts frOID it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son pemnSSlOn. autorisation. 0-612-78744-3 Canada TABLE OF CONTENTS Table ofContents Acknowledgements U Abstract tU Résumé v INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE GOSSIP 13 i. The Gossips' Circ1e as a Counter-Discursive Sphere 23 ii. The Gossip and the Scribe 32 iii. Gendering Orality and Literacy 55 iv. Who has the Last Laugh? 62 CHAPTER TWO: THE SHREW 73 i. Gendering the Historical Scold 75 ii. The Gossip as Shrew in the Deluge Mystery Plays 80 iii. Silencing the Shrew lOI iv. The Shrew and the Philosopher 118 Conc1usion: The Unruly Tongue ofMargery Kempe 128 CHAPTER THREE: THE WITCH 140 i. At the Crossroads ofFiction and History 142 ii. Constructing the Witch as Shrew 150 iii. Constructing the Witch as Gossip 163 iv. The Diabolical Gossips' Circ1e 178 CHAPTER FOUR: THE CRITIC 212 i. Bakhtin, Medieval Literature and Gender Analysis 215 ii. Building on Bakhtin 228 ii. Gossip as Critic/Critic as Gossip 240 CONCLUSION 266 BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 Il ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion ofthis project was made possible by a number ofinstitutional and individual forms ofsupport. 1would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council ofCanada for its financial support and the McGill Department of English for the research grant that enabled me to gain sorne archivaI experience. My supervisors, Prof. Sarah Westphal and Prof. Dorothy Bray, 1would like to thank for not only helping me to refine my skills, but also helping me to discover the kind ofacademic 1want to be. The well-timed words ofwisdom and encouragement ofDr. Abby Lippman and Dr. Bill Guenter have been a source ofstrength for me. For their understanding and ongoing expressions ofsupport, 1would like to thank Ivana Djordjevic, Cassandra Szklarski, Natasha Sawatsky, Sally Chivers, Pam Nicholls, Tracie Gemmel and Monica Guenter. 1would especially like to thank Melanie Hunter for being my very own fairy godmother. Chris Hand deserves a page ofacknowledgements aIl to himself for his Olympian generosity, for making me laugh and for having shoulders to rival Atlas. Lastly, 1want to thank Rhonda Wiebe and Melanie Mortensen, my refuge and my rock, respectively, for sustaining me throughout this process. In the years during which 1 ascended the steps ofthe proverbial academic Ivory Tower my parents chose to descend into the world's trenches to care for the human casualties ofwar. This dissertation is dedicated to them, for their love, their support, and for leading by example. III ABSTRACT This dissertation contributes to medieval feminist scholarship by forging new insights into the relationship between gender theory and developing notions oforality and textuality in late medieval Europe. 1examine three conventional satirical depictions of women as deviant speakers in medievalliterature-as loquacious gossips, scolding shrews and cursing witches-to reveal how medieval perceptions oforal and textual discursive modes influenced literary representations ofwomen. The dissertation demonstrates that our comprehension ofthe literary battle between the sexes requires a recognition and understanding ofhow discursive modes were gendered in a culture increasingly defining itselfin terms oftextuality. My work pursues the juxtaposition of the rational, literate male and the irrational, oral female across a wide range oftexts, from Dunbar and Chaucer's courtly literature, to more socially diffused works, such as carols, sermon exempla and the Deluge mystery plays, as weIl as texts, like Margery Kempe's autobiographyand witchcraft documents, that pertain to historical women. 1demonstrate the social impact ofthis convention by anchoring these literary texts in their socio historical context. The significance ofmy identification ofthis nexus oforality and femininity is that 1am able to delineate an ideology profoundly affecting the way women's speech and writings have been received and perceived for centuries. This notion ofgendered discourse can also redefine how we perceive medievalliterature. Mikhail Bakhtin's discursive principles-ideas that stem from his application ofthe dynamics oforal communication and performance to the literary text-help to liberate new meanings from old texts by allowing us to read against the grain ofconvention. Both Bakhtin's theory ofdialogism and Walter Ong's summary ofthe psychodynamics of IV orality suggest that orally influenced discourse is less interested in monolithic truth than in the art oftelling, where meaning is applied locally within the context ofexperience. Recognizing the socio-linguistic standpoint ofan oral mode reveals the potential value of oral discourse for those groups, both fictional and historical, excluded from culturally privileged forms ofdiscourse and provides a new critical perspective for scholars who set out to hear these voices. v RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse ajoute aux études féministes médiévales par un regard neufsur la relation entre la théorie des genres et les notions émergentes d'oralité et de textualité en Europe médiévale du ISe siècle. l'introduis trois satires conventionnelles d'interlocutrices aberrantes de la littérature du Moyen Âge, soit celles de la commère, de la mégère et de la sorcière, afin d'exposer les façons dont les perceptions médiévales de discours tant oraux que textuels ont pu influencer les représentations littéraires de la femme. Ma thèse démontre que la guerre littéraire des sexes exige une reconnaissance et une compréhension de la sexualisation des modes discursifs d'une culture qui, de plus en plus, se définit textuellement. Je trace donc la juxtaposition du mâle rationnel lettré et de la femme irrationnelle de culture orale au travers de textes divers: littérature courtoise de Dunbar et de Chaucer, chansons, sermons, théâtre du Déluge, autobiographie de Margery Kempe et documents relatifs à la sorcellerie portant sur des femmes réelles. Le fait d'ancrer ces textes littéraires dans un contexte socio-économique souligne l'impact social de cette convention. Le lien entre oralité et féminité permet de délinéer une idéologie qui affecte profondément la façon dont paroles et écrits féminins sont reçus et perçus pendant des siècles. Bien entendu, cette notion de discours sexué peut aussi redéfinir notre façon de percevoir la littérature médiévale. Les principes discursifs de Mikhail Bakhtin, qui découlent de l'application au texte littéraire des dynamiques de la communication orale et de la performance, libèrent de nouvelles significations de vieux textes par une lecture à rebours des conventions. La notion de dialogisme propre à Bakhtin, ainsi que le résumé de Walter Ong sur la psychodynamique de l'oralité, suggèrent de plus que les discours influencés par l'oralité sont moins axés sur des vérités monolithiques que sur l'art de VI raconter; la signification surgit alors localement du vécu. Une lecture socio-linguistique du mode oral révèle la valeur possible de l'oralité pour ces groupes à la fois fictifs et historiques exclus de formes culturellement privilégiées. Une telle position offre donc une nouvelle perspective critique pour les chercheurs qui se décident à écouter ces voix. INTRODUCTION When Chaucer's Wife ofBath performs her most outrageous act ofliterary criticism, her partial destruction ofJankyn's book of"wykked wyves," she throws down the gage in the battle between female "experience" and male "auctoritee," a feud she extends long after her personal marital strife has apparently been resolved. Given the stridency ofthis most colourful ofChaucer's pilgrims, our attention is drawn to how Alisoun singly contends against the tradition ofliterary antifeminism. However, Chaucer's characterisation ofthe Wife ofBath constructs her as the most vocal ofa more silent sisterhood, the "wise wyves" which she both refers to and, regardless ofthe constituency ofher pilgrim audience, occasionally addresses in her Prologue. Critical scholarship preoccupied with the Wife's virtuosic "glossynge" ofthe patristic literary legacy effectively neglects to note that Alisoun acknowledges the authority ofanother body ofknowledge apart from her own marital "scoleiyng" by her references to the "loore" ofher "dame." Alisoun's allusions to her mother, along with