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(2017) Chaucer and the child, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Inherited categories of age as referenced in Chaps. 3 through 5 are disrupted by atypical fusions of young and old. Carolyn Dinshaw's notion of queer temporality is used here to frame the topoi of the puer and puella senex to demonstrate how assumptions about age-appropriate behaviors may be challenged and revised. Positioning Chaucer's children within a context of "wise child" figures such as Child Merlin, Child Jesus, and the child saint, Nicholas, this chapter foregrounds Maurice and Custance of the Man of Law's Tale, Sophie of the Tale of Melibee, and Virginia of the Physician's Tale. And because there is a notable difference between childlikeness and childishness, two adult figures—Oswald the Reeve and the Prioress—are also considered.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-43637-5_6
Full citation:
Salisbury, E. (2017). Troubling stages of life: child-woman, child-man, in Chaucer and the child, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 187-223.
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