Queer theory emphasizes the circulation of power through sex-gender-sexuality systems to trace methods of normalization for the purposes of political intervention. Within literature, queer theory functions as a lens into historical gender and sexual ideologies. My thesis attempts to bridge queer theory with medieval studies to highlight queer and non-normative sensibilities within a particular medieval text: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales develops characters who straddle the line between the queer and the licit, and he creates situations that disrupt the expected hetero-normative, masculine ideology of medieval England. Queering Canterbury explores how queer-gender, queer-bashing, queer humor, and the queynte function within Chaucer's Canterbury Tales while relating the overarching struggle for masculinity and power.

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This paper explores the extent to which the female characters in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales exercise any degree of narrative agency. Using both literary and historical approaches, this paper specifically discusses the cases of three of Chaucer’s women: Virginia, Griselda, and the Wife of Bath.

In the Middle Ages, marriage represented a shift in the balance of power for both men and women. Struggling to define what constitutes the ideal marriage in medieval society, the marriage group of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales attempts to reconcile the ongoing battle for sovereignty between husband and wife. Existing hierarchies restricted women; therefore, marriage fittingly presented more obstacles for women. Chaucer creates the dynamic personalities of the Wife of Bath, the Clerk and the Merchant to debate marriage intelligently while citing their experiences within marriage in their prologues. The rhetorical device of ethos plays a significant role for the pilgrims. By first establishing their authority, each pilgrim sets out to provide his or her audience with a tale of marriage that is most correct. Chaucer's work as a social commentary becomes rhetorically complex with varying levels of ethos between Chaucer the author, his tale tellers and their characters.