Sexual Violence in History: A Bibliography

compiled by Stefan Blaschke

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Start: Topical Index: Representations: Literary Texts: 14th Century:

Representations: Literary Texts:
GEOFFREY CHAUCER

G e n e r a l   I n f o r m a t i o n

»Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s - 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.« -- More information: Wikipedia



General

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Barnett, Pamela E. »"And shortly for to seyn they were aton". Chaucer's deflection of rape in the "Reeve's" and "Franklin's Tales".« Women's studies 22 (1993): 145-162.

[Info] Blum, Martin. Body Politics: Otherness and the Representation of Bodies in Late Medieval Writings. Ph.D. Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1997.

[Info] Dinshaw, Carolyn. »Quarrels, rivals, and rape. Gower and Chaucer.« "A wyf ther was". Essays in honour of Paule Mertens-Fonck. Edited by Juliette Dor. Liège 1992: 112-122.

[Info] Quinn, William A. »The Rapes of Chaucer.« Chaucer Yearbook 5 (1998): 1-18.

[Info] Rose, Christine M. »Reading Chaucer, reading rape.« Representing rape in medieval and early modern literature. Edited by Elizabeth Robertson et al. New York 2001: 21-60.

[Info] Sylvester, Louise. »Reading narratives of rape. The story of Lucretia in Chaucer, Gower and Christine de Pizan.« Leeds studies in English No. 31 (2000): 115-144.

[Info] Warburton, Rachel. »Reading rape in Chaucer. Or are Cecily, Lucretia, and Philomela good women?« Diversifying the discourse. The Florence Howe Award for outstanding feminist scholarship, 1990-2004. Edited by Mihoko Suzuki et al. New York 2006: 270-287.

II. Speaker Index

[Info] Arthur, Karen. »Rhetorical Questions, Sexual Violence, and Chaucer.« 32nd International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 1997.

[Info] Baechle, Sarah. »Authority, Testimony, Survival: How to Speak about Chaucer's Rapes.« 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2020.

[Info] Barrington, Candace. »Chaucer, Rape, and Consent.« Crime and Punishment: Law and Literature in Medieval England. Groningen 2020.

[Info] Dittmer, Kendra. »The Legacy of Chaucer in Modern Discourses of Sexual Assault.« 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies Kalamazoo 2024.

[Info] Garrison, Jennifer. »Teaching Rape in Chaucer and Gower.« 52nd International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2017.

[Info] Harris, Carissa M. »Rape Resistance, Personal Trauma, and Chaucer's Victim-Survivors.« 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2020.



Anelida and Arcite

I n f o r m a t i o n

»« -- More information: Wikipedia


Keywords

Cases: Mythological Offenders: Theseus; Mythological Victims: Hippolyta | Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Aaij, Michel. »Perverted Love in Chaucer's "Anelida and Arcite".« Medieval Perspectives 14 (1999): 13-19.

II. Speaker Index

-

Canterbury Tales

I n f o r m a t i o n

»« -- More information: Wikipedia

Keywords

Representations: Films: Canterbury Tales


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Allman, W.W., et al. »Rough Love: Notes toward an Erotics of the Canterbury TalesChaucer Review 38 (2003): 36-65.

[Info] Gestsdóttir, Særún. Chaucer's female characters in the Canterbury Tales: Born to thralldom and penance, and to been under mannes governance. B.A. Thesis, Háskóli Íslands, 2010.

[Info] Torres, Sara V., et al. »Female Consent and Affective Resistance in Romance: Medieval Pedagogy and #MeToo.« New Chaucer Studies 2 (2021): 34-49.

[Info] Waymack, Anna. »Teaching de raptu meo: Chaucer, Chaumpaigne, and Consent in the Classroom.« Medieval Feminist Forum 53 (2017): 150-175.

[Info] Weisl, Angela J. »"Quiting" Eve. Violence against women in the Canterbury TalesViolence against women in medieval texts. Edited by Anna Roberts. Gainsville 1998: 115-136.

II. Speaker Index

-

The Franklin's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"« -- More information: Wikipedia


Keywords

Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Barnett, Pamela E. »"And shortly for to seyn they were aton": Chaucer's Deflection of Rape in the "Reeve's" and "Franklin's Tales"« Women's Studies 22 (1993): 145-162.

II. Speaker Index

-

The Man of Law's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"The Man of Law's Tale" is the fifth of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, written around 1387. John Gower's "Tale of Constance" in Confessio Amantis tells the same story and may have been a source for Chaucer. Nicholas Trivet's Les chronicles was a source for both authors.« -- More information: Wikipedia


Keywords

Cases: Fictional Victims: Custance | Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Gibson, Angela L. Fictions of Abduction in the Auchinleck Manuscript, the 'Pearl' Poet, Chaucer, and Malory. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Rochester, 2008.

[Info] O'Connell, Brendan. »"Struglyng wel and mightily": Resisting Rape in the "Man of Law's Tale".« Medium Ævum 84 (2015): 16-39.

II. Speaker Index

-

The Merchant's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"The Merchant's Tale" (Middle English: The Marchantes Tale) is one of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In it Chaucer subtly mocks antifeminist literature like that of Theophrastus ("Theofraste"). The tale also shows the influence of Boccaccio (Decameron: 7th day, 9th tale), Deschamps' Le Miroir de Mariage, Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (translated into English by Chaucer), Andreas Capellanus, Statius, and Cato. The tale is found in Persia in the Bahar Danush, in which the husband climbs a date tree instead of a pear tree. It could have arrived in Europe through the One Thousand and One Nightsf, or perhaps the version in book VI of the Masnavi by Rumi. Though several of the tales are sexually explicit by modern standards, this one is especially so.« -- More information: Wikipedia


Keywords

Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Kaufman, Amy S. »Erotic (Subject) Positions in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale.« Sexual Culture in the Literature of Medieval Britain. Edited by Amanda Hopkins et al. Cambridge 2014: 27-37.

[Info] Kingsley, Jenna D. Women with Wit: Desire, Coercion, and Comedy in Chaucer's Middle English Fabliaux. Honors Thesis, Emory University, 2016.

[Info] Rose, Christine. »Woman's "pryvete", May, and the privy. Fissures in the narrative voice in the Merchant's TaleChaucer review 4 (1997): 61-77.

II. Speaker Index

-

The Miller's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"« -- More information: Wikipedia


Keywords

Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Kingsley, Jenna D. Women with Wit: Desire, Coercion, and Comedy in Chaucer's Middle English Fabliaux. Honors Thesis, Emory University, 2016.

[Info] Pugh, Tison. »Speech, Silence, and Teaching Chaucer's Rapes.« Teaching Rape in the Medieval Literature Classroom: Approaches to Difficult Texts. Edited by Alison Gulley. Leeds 2018: 77-90.

II. Speaker Index

-

The Physician's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"« -- More information: Wikipedia


Keywords

Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Bott, Robin L. »«O, keep me from their worse than killing lust». Ideologies of rape and mutilation in Chaucer's Physician's Tale and Shakespeare's Titus AndronicusRepresenting rape in medieval and early modern literature. Edited by Elizabeth Robertson et al. New York 2001: 189-211.

II. Speaker Index

[Info] Bott, Robin L. »"O, keep me from their worse than killing lust": Ideologies of Rape and Mutilation in Chaucer's Physician Tale and Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus34th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 1999.



The Reeve's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"« -- More information: Wikipedia


T o p i c a l   I n d e x

Cases: Fictional Offenders: Aleyn; Fictional Offenders: Malyne | Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Barnett, Pamela E. »"And shortly for to seyn they were aton": Chaucer's Deflection of Rape in the "Reeve's" and "Franklin's Tales"« Women's Studies 22 (1993): 145-162.

[Info] Houlik-Ritchey, Emily. »Classroom PSA: Values, Law, and Ethics in "The Reeve's Tale".« Teaching Rape in the Medieval Literature Classroom: Approaches to Difficult Texts. Edited by Alison Gulley. Leeds 2018: 91-112.

[Info] Kingsley, Jenna D. Women with Wit: Desire, Coercion, and Comedy in Chaucer's Middle English Fabliaux. Honors Thesis, Emory University, 2016.

[Info] Pugh, Tison. »Speech, Silence, and Teaching Chaucer's Rapes.« Teaching Rape in the Medieval Literature Classroom: Approaches to Difficult Texts. Edited by Alison Gulley. Leeds 2018: 77-90.

II. Speaker Index

[Info] Austin, Greta. »Chaucer's Reeve's Tale and Female Privite: A Place Both Lawless and Lawful.« 27th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 1992.

[Info] Baechle, Sarah. »Malyne's Multivalent Tears: Rape, Trauma, and the "Reasonable" Victim.« 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2020.

[Info] McDonald, Rick. »Violence and Spectacle in The Reeve's Tale: Rape the women; beat the man.« 40th Annual Conference of the Southeastern Medieval Association. Atlanta 2014.

[Info] Oldmixon, Katherine D. »"A jape of malice in the dark": Troping Rape in Chaucer's Reeve's Tale.« 29th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 1994.



The Shipman's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"« -- More information: Wikipedia


T o p i c a l   I n d e x

Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Kingsley, Jenna D. Women with Wit: Desire, Coercion, and Comedy in Chaucer's Middle English Fabliaux. Honors Thesis, Emory University, 2016.

[Info] Skalak, Chelsea. »The Unwilling Wife: Marital Rape in the Canterbury TalesThe Chaucer Review 55 (2020): 119-146.

II. Speaker Index

-

Tale of Sir Thopas

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"« -- More information: Wikipedia


T o p i c a l   I n d e x

Types: General: Rape

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Bovaird-Abbo, Kristin. »Is Geoffrey Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas a Rape Narrative? Reading Thopas in light of the 1382 Statutes of Rape.« Quidditas 35 (2014): 7-28.

II. Speaker Index

-

The Wife of Bath's Tale

I n f o r m a t i o n

»"The Wife of Bath's Tale" (Middle English: The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe) is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It provides insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and was probably of interest to Chaucer himself, for the character is one of his most developed ones, with her Prologue twice as long as her Tale.« -- More information: Wikipedia


T o p i c a l   I n d e x

Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Biebel, Elizabeth M. »A Wife, a Batterer, a Rapist: Representations of "Masculinity" in the Wife of Bath's Prologue and TaleMasculinities in Chaucer: Approaches to Maleness in the Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. Edited by Peter G. Beidler. Cambridge 1998: 63-75.

[Info] Blanch, Robert J. »'Al was this land fulfild of fayerye': The Thematic Employment of Force, Willfulness, and Legal Conventions in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's TaleStudia Neophilologica 57 (1985): 41-51.

[Info] Carrell, Jessica. Indicted Knights: Female Agency and the Adjudication of Rape in Arthurian Romances. B.A. Thesis, University of Southern Mississippi, 2018.

[Info] Edwards, Suzanne M. The Afterlives of Rape in Medieval English Literature. New York 2016.

[Info] Goodspeed-Chadwick, Julie E. »Sexual Politics in 'The Wife of Bath's Prologue' and 'Tale': The Rhetorics of Domestic Violence and Rape.« Readerly/Writerly Texts 11-12 (2004-2005): 155-162.

[Info] Harris, Carissa M. »Rape and Justice in The Wife Bath's TaleThe Open Access Companion to The Canterbury Tales. Edited by Candace Barrington et al. 2017.

[Info] Huppé, Bernard F. »Rape and Woman's Sovereignty in the Wife of Bath's TaleModern Language Notes 63 (1948): 378-381.

[Info] Jacobs, Kathryn. »Unlikely Sympathies: The Rapist of the Wife's Tale.« Mediaevalia 29 (2008): 1-13.

[Info] Lee, Brian S. »Exploitation and excommunication in The Wife of Bath's TalePhilological quarterly 74 (1995): 17-35.

[Info] Leicester, H. Marshall, Jr. »"My bed was ful of verray blood.". Subject, dream, and rape in the Wife of Bath's prologue and tale.« Geoffrey Chaucer: The Wife of Bath. Complete authoritative text with biographical and historical contexts, critical history, and essays from five contemporary critical perspectives. Edited by Peter G. Beidler. 1996: 234-254.

[Info] McLemore, Emily. »What the Wife of Bath Still Has to Teach Us.« Medieval Studies Research Blog (December 18, 2017).

[Info] Noji, Kaoru. »[Chaucer's Description of Rape: The Case of The Wife of Bath's Tale].« Cho?sa? a?sa? chu?sei roman. Edited by Yu?ko Tagaya. Koshigaya 2008: 144-160.

[Info] O'Brien, Timothy D. »Seductive Violence and Three Chaucerian Women.« College Literature 28 (2001): 178-196.

[Info] Pugh, Tison. »Speech, Silence, and Teaching Chaucer's Rapes.« Teaching Rape in the Medieval Literature Classroom: Approaches to Difficult Texts. Edited by Alison Gulley. Leeds 2018: 77-90.

[Info] Richman, Gerald. »Rape and desire in The Wife of Bath's TaleStudia neophilologica 61 (1989): 161-165.

[Info] Robertson, Elizabeth. »"Raptus" and the poetics of married love in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale and James I's Kingis quairReading medieval culture. Essays in honor of Robert W. Hanning. Edited by Robert M. Stein et al. Notre Dame 2005: 302-323.

[Info] Salisbury, Eve. »Chaucer's "Wife," the law, and the Middle English Breton lays.« Domestic violence in medieval texts. Edited by Eve Salisbury et al. Gainesville 2002: 73-93.

[Info] Saunders, Corinne. »Woman displaced. Rape and romance in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's TaleArthurian literature 13 (1995): 115-131.

[Info] Tigges, Wim. »"Lat the womman telle hire tale". A reading of The Wife of Bath's Tale.« English studies 73 (1992): 97-103.

[Info] Torres, Sara V., et al. »Teaching Courtly Love in the Medieval Classroom: Desire, Consent, and the #MeToo Movement.« #MeToo and Literary Studies: Reading, Writing, and Teaching about Sexual Violence and Rape Culture. New York 2021: 323-338.

[Info] Vance, Sidney. »Contending with the Masculinist Traditions: 'Sundiata's' Sogolon and the Wife of Bath.« Global Perspectives on Teaching Literature: Shared Visions and Distinctive Visions. Edited by Sandra W. Lott et al. Urbana 1993: 101-108.

[Info] Vines, Amy M. »Invisible Woman: Rape as a Chivalric Necessity in Medieval Romance.« Sexual Culture in the Literature of Medieval Britain. Edited by Amanda Hopkins et al. Cambridge 2014: 161-180.

[Info] Wollstadt, Lynn M. »Repainting the Lion: The Wife of Bath's Tale and a Traditional British Ballad.« The English "Loathly Lady" Tales: Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs. Edited by S. Elizabeth Passmore et al. Kalamazoo 2007: 199-212.

II. Speaker Index

[Info] Carrell, Jessica. »Indicted Knights: Female Agnecy and the Adjudication of Rape in Arthurian Romances.« 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2020.

[Info] Carrell, Jessica. »Indicted Knights: Female Agnecy and the Adjudication of Rape in Arthurian Romances.« 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Virtual 2021.

[Info] Evitt, Regula M. »The Literary Politics of Rape: Dante, Chaucer, and the Wife of Bath.« Colorado College Seventeenth Century Group, Colorado College. Colorado Springs 1998.

[Info] Gulley, Alison. »"How do we know he really raped her?" Confronting Student Skepticism When Teaching The Wife of Bath's Tale49th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2014.

[Info] Maxwell, Drew. »"In women vinolent is no defence, This knowen lecchours by experience": The Wife of Bath and Rape Culture.« 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2018.

[Info] McLemore, Emily. »On Rape & Reform: What the Wife of Bath Still Has to Teach Us.« 35th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Medieval Association. Chicago 2018.

[Info] McLemore, Emily. »Feminist Caricature, Comical Rape, and the Illustrated Wyf of Bathe: A Liberated Woman's Great Story!55th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2020.

[Info] McLemore, Emily. »Feminist Caricature, Comical Rape, and the Illustrated Wyf of Bathe: A Liberated Woman's Great Story!56th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Virtual 2021.

[Info] Newman, Florence. »On Trial: Rape in Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women and the Wife of Bath's Tale29th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 1994.

[Info] Pitts, Jessica. »'For which oppression was swich clamour': Rape as a Queer Act in The Wife of Bath's TaleFlorida Atlantic University English Graduate Student Society Fall Conference. Boca Raton 2010.

[Info] Pitts, Jessica. »Male Rape and Loathly Ladies in The Wife of Bath's Tale and Robin Hood: Men in Tights49th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 2014.



The Legend of Good Women

I n f o r m a t i o n

»The Legend of Good Women is a poem in the form of a dream vision by Geoffrey Chaucer during the fourteenth century.« -- More information: Wikipedia


T o p i c a l   I n d e x

Cases: Mythological Offenders: Sextus Tarquinius; Mythological Victims: Lucretia | Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Adams, Michael. »Specular Rape: Reflections on Early Modern Reflections of the Present Day.« Centennial Review 41 (1997): 217-250.

[Info] Aloni, Gila. »Lucrece's 'Myght': Rhetorical/Sexual Potency and Potentiality in Geoffrey Chaucer's Legend of LucreceRhetoric Society Quarterly 29 (1999): 31-43.

[Info] Amsler, Mark. »Rape and Silence: Ovid's Mythography and Medieval Readers.« Representing Rape in Medieval and Early Modern Literature. Edited by Elizabeth Robertson et al. New York 2001: 61-96.

[Info] Gibson, Angela L. Fictions of Abduction in the Auchinleck Manuscript, the 'Pearl' Poet, Chaucer, and Malory. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Rochester, 2008.

[Info] Pugh, Tison. »Speech, Silence, and Teaching Chaucer's Rapes.« Teaching Rape in the Medieval Literature Classroom: Approaches to Difficult Texts. Edited by Alison Gulley. Leeds 2018: 77-90.

II. Speaker Index

[Info] Newman, Florence. »On Trial: Rape in Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women and the Wife of Bath's Tale29th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 1994.



Troilus and Criseyde

I n f o r m a t i o n

»Troilus and Criseyde is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in rime royale and probably completed during the mid-1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it as the poet's finest work. As a finished long poem it is more self-contained than the better known but ultimately unfinished The Canterbury Tales. This poem is often considered the source of the phrase: "all good things must come to an end" (3.615).« -- More information: Wikipedia


T o p i c a l   I n d e x

Types: General: Rape


B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Dinshaw, Carolyn. »Rivalry, rape, and manhood. Gower and Chaucer.« Violence against women in medieval texts. Edited by Anna Roberts. Gainesville 1998: 137-160.

[Info] Gibson, Angela L. Fictions of Abduction in the Auchinleck Manuscript, the 'Pearl' Poet, Chaucer, and Malory. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Rochester, 2008.

[Info] Jost, Jean E. »Intersecting the Ideal and the Real, Chivalry and Rape, Respect and Dishonor: The Problematics of Sexual Relationships in Troilus and Criseyde, Athelston, and Sir TristremSexuality in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: New Approaches to a Fundamental Cultural-Historical and Literary-Anthropological Theme. Edited by Albrecht Classen. Berlin 2008: 599-632.

[Info] Powrie, Sarah. »Criseyde, Consent, and the #MeToo Reader.« New Chaucer Studies 2 (2021): 18-33.

[Info] Robertson, Elizabeth. »Public bodies and psychic domains. Rape and female subjectivity in Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and CriseydeRepresenting rape in medieval and early modern literature. Edited by Elizabeth Robertson et al. New York 2001: 281-310.

[Info] Rushton, Cory J. »The Awful Passion of Pandarus.« Sexual Culture in the Literature of Medieval Britain. Edited by Amanda Hopkins et al. Cambridge 2014: 147-160.

II. Speaker Index

[Info] Adams, Barbara. »Philomela's Tapestry, Criseyde's Text: Ovidian Myths of Rape and Transformation in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde27th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo 1992.