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Interpreting female agency and responsibility in The Miller's Tale and The Merchant's Tale.(Canterbury Tales)

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From: Philological Quarterly
Date: 20010322
Author:Parry, Joseph D.

1

Geoffrey Chaucer frequently displays keen interest in questions of female agency and responsibility by rendering his female characters at key moments in silences, deferred answers, absences, and unexpected submissiveness. (1) Chaucer's interest in these moments is not to portray these female figures as merely passive recipients either of the forces that construct women in texts, or of our own critical constructions. Rather, at these crucial junctures where the tale requires but does not fully enable us to construct an interpretation, the poet invites us critically to ...

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