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				First published: October 1, 2025 - Last updated: October 1, 2025
			TITLE INFORMATION 
			
			Author: Kathy Cawsey
			
 Title: The Grammar of Rape in Chaucer and Gower
 
 Subtitle: -
 
 Journal: Florilegium
 
 Volume: 38: Sexualized and Gendered Violence in the Middle Ages (Edited by Kathy Cawsey)
 
 Issue: -
 
 Year: 2025 (2021) (Published online: August 14, 2025)
 
 Pages: 72-88
 
 pISSN: 0709-5201 - 
				Find a Library: WorldCat | 
			eISSN: 2369-7180 - 
				Find a Library: WorldCat
 
 Language: English
 
 Keywords: 
				Medieval History | 
				European History | 
				Cases: 
					Lucretia, 
					Philomela; 
				Types: 
					Rape; 
				Representations: 
					Literary Texts / 
						Geoffrey Chaucer, 
						John Gower
 
 FULL TEXT
 
			
			Links:
			- Project MUSE (Restricted Access)
 
 - University of Toronto Press (Restricted Access)
 
 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
 
			
			Author:
				Kathy Cawsey, 
					Department of English, 
					Dalhousie University
			
 Abstract: 
				»As a Past-President of the Canadian Society of Medievalists, I gave the following plenary address at the 2022 annual conference. The address argues that a close analysis of the grammar of Chaucer's and Gower's descriptions of the rapes of Lucretia and Philomena, especially paying attention to the positioning of the audience through that grammar, shows that while Gower is interested in the audience experiencing pity for the raped women, Chaucer, by grammatically forcing the audience to experience the same emotions as the raped women, encourages empathy. Since I presented this paper, two new Chaucer life records have been discovered; consequently, I have changed the beginning.« 
				(Source: Florilegium)
 
 Wikipedia: 
				History of Europe: 
					History of England / 
						England in the Late Middle Ages | 
				Literature: 
					English literature / 
						Geoffrey Chaucer, 
						John Gower | 
				Literature: 
					Fiction about rape | 
						Confessio Amantis, 
						The Legend of Good Women | 
				Myth: 
					Classical mythology / 
						Lucretia, 
						Philomela | 
				Sex and the law: 
					Rape / 
						History of rape
 |