Reading Women in Late Medieval Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 1-24

3. Devotional Texts for Royal Princessesin Late-Medieval Bohemia

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 25-44

4. Writing Jews, Writing Women: Chaucer’s “The Prioress’s Tale” and The Sacred Drama of Medieval Europe

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 45-77

5. The Lady as Saint: “The Second Nun’s Tale,” Pearl, and the Czech Life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 79-110

6. Dangerous Amazons: Sexual and Textual Rivalry in “The Knight’s Tale” and The Dalimil Chronicle

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 111-137

7. Powerful Wives and Captive Knights: “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,”Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the Czech Chivalric Romances

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 139-165

8. Women Defended, Women Defamed: The Legend of Good Women, The Plowman from Bohemia, and The Little Weaver

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 167-204

9. Conclusion

   • Alfred Thomas

   Pages 205-210

10. Back Matter

    Pages 211-251

    PDF

Although Chaucer is typically labeled as the "Father of English Literature," evidence shows that his work appealed to Europe and specifically European women. Rereading the Canterbury Tales , Thomas argues that Chaucer imagined Anne of Bohemia, wife of famed Richard II, as an ideal reader, an aspect that came to greatly affect his writing.

• Chaucer
• English literature
• Europe
• Middle Ages
• British and Irish Literature

“Reading Women is a rich and compelling addition to the author’s earlier work on the pan-European culture of Bohemia, especially as popularized in England by Richard II’s Queen Anne.” (Linda Burke, Mediaevistik, Vol. 31 (1), 2018)

"Alfred Thomas makes some important advances in our understanding of the affiliations between Bohemia and Britain in the later middle ages - a field of study attracting a rapid growth of interest. This coherent and persuasive study will appeal not only to Chaucerians but also to those working on patronage, cultural transmission, literary influence, gender, saints' lives, and European literature, among many other topics. Alfred Thomas's connectivity with a range of ongoing debates is impressive." - Peter Brown, Professor of English, University of Kent, UK

Alfred Thomas is Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. He has published eight books, including, Anne's Bohemia: Czech Literature and Society (1310-1420); A Blessed Shore: England and Bohemia from Chaucer to Shakespeare; Prague Palimpsest: Writing, Memory, and the City; and Shakespeare, Dissent, and the Cold War.

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