Transforming Community: Women's Rape Narratives and Gower's Confessio Amantis.
- Author/Editor
- Garrison, Jennifer.
- Title
- Transforming Community: Women's Rape Narratives and Gower's Confessio Amantis.
- Published
- Garrison, Jennifer. "Transforming Community: Women's Rape Narratives and Gower's Confessio Amantis." Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality 57, no. 1 (2021): 121-41.
- Review
- Garrison's essay begins with a summary of the recent exploration of personal rape narratives that have led us to question our assumptions about the safety and civility of Western society. She suggests Gower's "Confessio Amantis" as a potential tool to use in transforming Western rape culture because it "highlights sexual violence against women as a central cultural injustice and presents rape narratives as a potentially powerful force for social and political change" (123). Gower's poem brings to light the social destruction that results from "the masculine chivalric ideal" that nearly always comes at the price of women's suffering. Garrison focuses on three of the stories in the CA: "Mundus and Paulina," "Tarquin and Lucrece," and "Tereus and Philomena." Garrison notes that "Gower reveals that the language of courtly love is a culturally sanctioned version of the language of rape" (124). He does this through Genius's warnings about the dangers of courtly love through tales concerning rape, and, despite what other critics have argued, Garrison contends that Gower is not trivializing experiences of rape but instead showing them as acts of violence against communities. Discussing the tale of "Mundus and Paulina," she demonstrates how the community's response to Paulina's rape creates a sort of solidarity--the "English social unity" for which he calls in his Prologue (126). Gower achieves this through his focus on Paulina's suffering, which also works to unite the Christian community. In the legend of Lucrece, Garrison writes, "Gower focuses on the power of Lucrece as a storyteller who exposes the social dangers of powerful men who fail to control their own desires" (130). She suggests Gower's moral for the tale is that powerful men should not rape their subjects. After demonstrating the through-lines in the CA of the rape of women and invasions of cities, Garrison adds, "Gower highlights how the rape of Lucrece has significance that extends well beyond one woman's body" (133). Garrison concludes this section of her essay: "Gower suggests that rape and political tyranny are inextricably intertwined" (134-35). Finally, Garrison turns to Gower's tale of "Philomena and Tereus," in which he "most clearly articulates the power of women's personal rape narratives" (135). Garrison posits the languages of courtly love and rape blur in this tale. She writes, "Philomena's narrative, written both on and by Philomena, consistently highlights the intersections of rape and courtly love in defining the chivalric subject" (138). Rape and courtly love become synonymous. Garrison concludes her essay by highlighting the transformative social power of rape narratives: "As uncomfortable a truth as it may be, personal rape narratives are an art. As an art form, they only have power insofar as they inspire their readers to change themselves" (141). [JGS. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 41.1]
- Date
- 2021
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis