The Matter of Virtue : Women's Ethical Action from Chaucer to Shakespeare / Holly A. Crocker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crocker, Holly A., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics in literature.

Virtue in literature.

Women in literature.

English poetry--Early modern, 1500-1700--History and criticism.

English poetry.

English poetry--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (361 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

If material bodies have inherent, animating powers-or virtues, in the premodern sense-then those bodies typically and most insistently associated in the premodern period with matter-namely, women-cannot be inert and therefore incapable of ethical action, Holly Crocker contends. In The Matter of Virtue, Crocker argues that one idea of what it means to be human-a conception of humanity that includes vulnerability, endurance, and openness to others-emerges when we consider virtue in relation to modes of ethical action available to premodern women. While a misogynistic tradition of virtue ethics, from antiquity to the early modern period, largely cast a skeptical or dismissive eye on women, Crocker seeks to explore what happened when poets thought about the material body not as a tool of an empowered agent whose cultural supremacy was guaranteed by prevailing social structures but rather as something fragile and open, subject but also connected to others.After an introduction that analyzes Hamlet to establish a premodern tradition of material virtue, Part I investigates how retellings of the demise of the title female character in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Lydgate's Troy Book, Henryson's Testament of Cresseid, and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida among other texts structure a poetic debate over the potential for women's ethical action in a world dominated by masculine violence. Part II turns to narratives of female sanctity and feminine perfection, including ones by Chaucer, Bokenham, and Capgrave, to investigate grace, beauty, and intelligence as sources of women's ethical action. In Part III, Crocker examines a tension between women's virtues and household structures, paying particular attention to English Griselda- and shrew-literatures, including Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. She concludes by looking at Chaucer's Legend of Good Women to consider alternative forms of virtuous behavior for women as well as men.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction. Virtues That Matter

Chapter 1. The Fragility of Virtue, from Chaucer to Lydgate

Chapter 2. The Matter of Virtue, from Henryson to Shakespeare

Chapter 3. Virtue's Grace: Custance and Other Daughters

Chapter 4. Virtue's Knowledge in Lodge and Spenser

Chapter 5. Shrewish Virtue, from Chaucer to Shakespeare

Conclusion. Legends of Good Women

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780812296273

0812296273

OCLC:

1128448683