Divided Loyalties: Family and Consent to Marriage in Late Middle English Literature, 1300-1500.
- Author/Editor
- Alberghini, Jennifer.
- Title
- Divided Loyalties: Family and Consent to Marriage in Late Middle English Literature, 1300-1500.
- Published
- Alberghini, Jennifer. Divided Loyalties: Family and Consent to Marriage in Late Middle English Literature, 1300-1500. Ph.D. Dissertation. City University of New York, 2019. Dissertation Abstracts International A80.08(E). Abstract accessible via ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. Fully accessible from June 1, 2025, at https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3085/.
- Review
- Alberghini's dissertation studies the theme of marital consent in late medieval literature in English, providing background in Derridean consent theory and in medieval social and legal discourse about tensions between marital consent and parental control. As she describes it in her abstract Alberghini's analysis ranges widely in the literature, sifting a number of works to offer some rather blunt conclusions: "I begin with Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde' and 'The Legend of Good Women,' which conflict over this dilemma [personal choice versus deferral to higher authority], and show how the issues brought up in both texts are resolved in 'The Man of Law’s Tale.' This leads me to Chapter 2 on 'The King of Tars' and John Gower's 'Tale of Apollonius of Tyre' in the 'Confessio Amantis,' which combine parental support and filial obedience to satisfy both individual desire and political needs. The texts of Chapter 3, 'Blanchardyn and Eglantine' and the Charlemagne romance 'The Sultan of Babylon,' further show how female characters, in these cases, Saracen princesses, could affect their countries’ political futures through marriage. This message likely resonated with the patron of the former, Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother. Patrons also figure in Chapter 4, as Osbern Bokenham's 'Legendys of Hooly Wummen,' which I read next to John Capgrave’s 'Life of St. Katherine,' were written for married women and couples. I conclude looking at mother’s [sic] perspectives throughout these texts. Through my reading of this wide variety of works, I find that consent is very much emphasized in literature, with 'good' parents supporting their children's choices and 'bad' parents, who were also often non-Christian, trying to prevent these marriages from occurring. This emphasis thus suggests that we reconsider the opposition between medieval and modern ideas of gender, with marriage as one area in which medieval women could have some freedom." [MA]
- Date
- 2019
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Background and General Criticism