The Genre of Medieval Patience Literature : Development, Duplication, and Gender

This book examines evolution of medieval patience literature from a focus on male and female sufferers to a focus on female suffers in particular. Using feminist revisions of genre-theory, Waugh analyses the concept of counterfeit consciousness in the works of Margery Kempe and Chaucer among others. This project records the development and history of medieval patience literature by identifying and mapping the important shift in early patience literature from a focus on male and female sufferers to a focus more on female sufferers in particular. The argument employs feminist revisions of genre-theory to show how specific works fit into the evolution of the genre, and identifies and defines the important concept of counterfeit consciousness. The book first defines the genre through examples of patience literature from the martyrologies to the Legenda aurea, where one may note the emergence of feminine space as a representation of women's expression. Then, through a revision of the conventional understanding of Grisilde's passivity, the book shows how Chaucer's Clerk's Tale works as a sophisticated reductio ad absurdum of the patience genre and how Christine de Pizan's Griselda-tale works as a precise satire of male understandings of patience literature and of knightly romances. The project then examines Margery Kempe's trials as examples of the displacement of feminine space into Margery's own version of a shrine. No-one has previously described the genre of patience literature, while this book, intended primarily for an academic audience, increases recognition of specific roles for women in the Middle Ages, consolidates a number of innovative research trends, and makes an important contribution to literary history Cover 1 Title 10 Copyright 11 Contents 12 List of Illustrations 14 Preface and Acknowledgments 16 Abbreviations 18 Introduction: clarissimum in feminis 19 1. The Female Patience Figure as Speaker 55 2. The Female Patience Figure as Frozen Speaker 93 3. The Female Patience Figure as Counterfeit 131 4. The Female Patience Figure as Frozen Empress 139 5. The Female Patience Figure at an Extreme 148 6. The Female Patience Figure as Shrine 174 Notes 191 Index 231 Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Clarissimum in Feminis....Pages 1-36 The Female Patience Figure as Speaker....Pages 37-74 The Female Patience Figure as Frozen Speaker....Pages 75-112 The Female Patience Figure as Counterfeit....Pages 113-120 The Female Patience Figure as Frozen Empress....Pages 121-129 The Female Patience Figure at an Extreme....Pages 131-156 The Female Patience Figure as Shrine....Pages 157-173 Back Matter....Pages 175-230