Abandoned women : rewriting the classics in Dante, Boccaccio, & Chaucer / Suzanne C. Hagedorn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hagedorn, Suzanne C., 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375--Characters--Women.

Boccaccio, Giovanni.

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321--Characters--Women.

Dante Alighieri.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400--Characters--Women.

Chaucer, Geoffrey.

Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D--Characters--Women.

Ovid.

Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D--Influence.

Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D. Heroides.

Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400.

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321.

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375.

Literature, Medieval--Roman influences.

Literature, Medieval.

Women in literature.

Separation (Psychology) in literature.

Physical Description:

ix, 220 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2004]

Summary:

Medievalists Have Long Been interested in the "abandoned woman," a figure traditionally used to examine the value of male heroism. Moving beyond previous studies; which have focused primarily on Virgil's' Dido, Suzanne Hagedorn incorporates an array of primary texts which influenced and inspired medievat writers as they created their own poetic visions. Focusing on the vernacular works of Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer; she argues that revisiting the classical tradition of the abandoned woman enables these medieval authors to reconsider ancient epics and myths from a female perspective and question assimptions about gender roles in medieval literature. Hagedorn's careful examination of these ancient texts illuminates the complex web of allusions that link medieval authors to their literary predecessors. In essence the author argues that the process of reading reimagining, and reinscribing Ovid's Heroides in their own vernacular fictions teaches Dante, Boccaccio and Chaucer how to write from a revisionist perspective and how forecast and reconsider epic history and mythology from women's viewpoints. Hagedorn further demonstrates that all three authors present remarkably powerful and sympathetic views of women in their works. Abandoned Women will be of interest to medievalists and non-medievalists alike, with an interest in the areas of medieval text reception, poetic tradition comparative literature, and gender studies.

Contents:

Introduction: Abandoned Women and Medieval Tradition

Ovid's Heroides and the Latin Middle Ages

Statius's Achilleid and Dante's Canto of Ulysses: fraud, rhetoric, and abandoned women

Boccaccio's Teseo, Chaucer's Theseus: duplicity and desire

Abandoned women and the dynamics of reader response: Boccaccio's Amorosa, Visione, and Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta

Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde: re-gendering abandonment

Chaucer's Heroides: The legend of good women

Afterword: The metamorphoses of Ovid's heroines

Appendix: "Deidamia Achilli," ed. Stohlmann.

Notes:

Based on the author's dissertation (Cornell University).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-207) and index.

ISBN:

0472113496

OCLC:

52386327