This dissertation applies the concept of hegemonic masculinity. as first proposed by R.W Connell in her book Masculinities, to three works of medieval chivalric conduct literature. This dissertation asserts that the authors of the Ordene de chevalerie, the Livre de chevalerie of Geoffroi de Charny and the Espejo de verdadera nobleza create an image of knightly masculinity that demonstrates its superiority over other forms of medieval masculinity. At the same time, each text serves a secondary purpose; in elucidating the values and political aims of its author. The Ordene de chevalerie demonstrates the hegemonic nature of knighthood by means of its frame story while at the same time trying to show how the knighthood is intimately linked to the Christian faith by means of the ritual of initiation into the knighthood. The Livre de chevalerie provides guidance on how to obtain honor and prowess, while at the same showing how the knighthood is superior to the clerical class, another powerful mode of medieval masculinity. The Espejo de verdadera nobleza demonstrates that the hegemonic form of masculinity embodied in the knighthood was open to those who showed the necessary characteristics and won the approval of the sovereign. The Espejo acts as means of institutionalizing the knighthood and shows the first imaginings of how the knighthood would change with the advent of the Renaissance. By using a theoretical framework more common to the fields of sociology and management studies to explore these texts, this dissertation demonstrates how theories that are accepted in these fields may be applied to literary and medieval studies. This dissertation also seeks to bring greater attention to the genre of chivalric conduct literature, a genre that does not receive as much attention from scholars as other medieval genres such as epic and romance. This dissertation seeks to show that chivalric conduct literature is a fruitful field of study and that these three lesser known works in this genre provide valuable medieval perspectives on the concepts of knightly masculinity. Although these authors define knighthood differently, they all agree that knighthood plays a defining role in constructing and modeling a superior form of masculinity.

Though some scholars have maintained that Jane Austen closely adheres to the ideology of courtesy novels and conduct literature, I argue that Austen uses her knowledge of this ideology to reveal the flaws in reader assumptions about the presumed commonsensical nature of the courtesy novel and its feminine ideal. Austen is familiar with the conventions of eighteenth-century fiction, but, rather than adopting its tropes in her own work, she uses realism to parody its excesses and improbabilities; this realism then works against reader expectations and exposes paradoxes inherent in the courtesy novel and in conduct-book literature itself. In my thesis I observe how Austen uses courtesy novel tropes to expose or even mock the courtesy novel's inherently unrealistic qualities, and I do so by examining the act of "reading" in her novels: specifically, I argue that the literal reading that Austen's characters engage in does not produce the expected outcomes predicted by conduct books and courtesy novels; that the figurative reading of one character by another demonstrates the dangerousness and unsuitability of the heroine as "open book," as conduct books and courtesy novels urged her to be, as well as the irrationality and hypocrisy of acting the part of "closed book" to her intended lover; and, finally, that the act of reading an Austen novel is intended to prevent the absorption or interpretation of unrealistic ideals, through insistence on (more) realistic outcomes and through narrative intervention.

The impact of Enlightenment rhetoric on Revolutionary conceptions of gender has been a topic of historiographical debate. This thesis examines how Scottish Enlightenment stadial views of progress influenced early American female education discourse. Within this framework, upper middle-class white women transitioned from “slaves” to reasonable companions through the performance of feminine domesticity. Women who conformed to the prescriptions of Scottish moralists represented Anglo-American ideals of civility and refinement which served as a justification for the enslavement and dispossession of African and Indigenous peoples. Examining opinion pieces, advertisements for schools, academy addresses, and runaway slave advertisements reveals how early Americans participated in the simultaneous construction of race and gender. Beginning in the colonial era, editorialists deployed rhetoric from James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women (1766) to argue that upper-class white women were capable of reason and thus deserving of educational opportunities. Pre-revolutionary rationales persisted into the post-revolutionary era. This suggests that increased educational opportunities were not contingent on the Revolution. In the 1780s, editorialists deployed lines of reasoning from John Greogory’s A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters (1774), to broaden the construct of reasonable companionship. They argued that upper middle-class white women influenced men’s manners and made society more virtuous. This conception gave women an informal public role as moral arbiters. In the 1790s, women’s rights rhetoric challenged but did not refute the ideological construct of reasonable companionship. Taking a critical race approach to studying Revolutionary women’s access to educational opportunities reveals how dominant discourses upheld the racial hierarchy. / Graduate / 2023-08-24