This thesis examines the use and function of the human body as a surface that is inscribed
with a number of socially significant meanings and how these inscriptions operate in the
specific late medieval cultural production. Drawing on Jauss's notion of the social and
political significance of medieval narrative, I seek to determine how specific texts contribute
to a regulatory practice by thematizing bodies that are perceived as "other," that resist or defy
an imagined social norm or stereotype.
Each of the dissertation's four chapters treats a different set of notions about the
human body. The first one examines Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale and The King of Tars as
representations of ethnographic difference. I argue that the late Middle Ages did not have the
notion of "race" as a signifier of ethnic difference: instead there is a highly unstable system of
positions that place an individual in relation to Christian Salvation History. Robert
Henryson's Testament of Cresseid is at the centre of chapter two that examines the moral
issues surrounding leprosy as a stigmatized disease. Reading the text as a piece of medical
historiography, I argue that one of the purposes of the narrative is to establish the link
between Cresseid's sexual behaviour and her disease. A discussion of the homosocial
underpinnings of late medieval feudal society, particularly in light of Duby's notion of "les
jeunes," forms the basis of the final two chapters. Chapter three discusses Chaucer's Legend ofLucrece and the narrative function of rape as a pedagogical instrument with the aim to
ensure the availability of untouched female bodies for a "traffic in women" between
noblemen. Chapter four examines transgressive sexual acts as the objects of jokes in fabliaux,
such as Chaucer's Miller's Tale. By using shame and ridicule as their main strategy, these
texts, I argue, fulfil an exemplary function and act as a warning to young noblemen to
maintain an erotic discipline as future heads of feudal houses and as an upcoming political
elite.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6721 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Blum Fuller, Martín F. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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