The Matter of Virtue: Women's Ethical Action from Chaucer to Shakespeare

Holly A. Crocker

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2019

The Matter of Virtue

Women's Ethical Action from Chaucer to Shakespeare

Holly A. Crocker

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812296273

Overview
Contents

About this book

In The Matter of Virtue, Holly A. Crocker explores what happened to virtue when late medieval and early modern English poets thought about the material body not as a tool of an empowered male agent but rather, and as women more frequently experienced it, as something fragile and open, subject but also connected to others.

Author / Editor information

Holly A. Crocker is Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina and author of Chaucer's Visions of Manhood.

Reviews

"Producing compelling readings of canonical texts and contextualizing the texts among a wealth of theological writings, conduct books, and household management manuals, The Matter of Virtue substantially contributes to feminist scholarship on gender prescriptions, marital relations, and female agency in medieval and early modern literature. Holly A. Crocker convincingly argues that traditional feminine traits such as obedience and endurance should not be diminished or dismissed as passivity but should be regarded as active performances of an embodied ethics of vulnerability."—Mario DiGangi, Lehman College and CUNY Graduate Center

"Attending to the full premodern meaning of virtue as well as to recent feminist philosophy, Holly A. Crocker offers an essential new account of ethical life legible in English texts written during the period of transition from late medieval to early modern. The Matter of Virtue is a timely intervention in the history of literary reading that helps us rethink the gendered ecologies of ethics and virtue."—Patricia Clare Ingham, University of Indiana, Bloomington

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. Virtues That Matter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I. PRESCRIPTIVE FAILURES
Chapter 1. The Fragility of Virtue, from Chaucer to Lydgate Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Chapter 2. The Matter of Virtue, from Henryson to Shakespeare Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
PART II. GRACE, ENACTED: ROMANCE AND MATERIAL VIRTUE
Chapter 3. Virtue’s Grace: Custance and Other Daughters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Chapter 4. Virtue’s Knowledge in Lodge and Spenser Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
PART III. HOMELY VIRTUES
Chapter 5. Shrewish Virtue, from Chaucer to Shakespeare Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Conclusion. Legends of Good Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 360
Illustrations
- Other: 11 illus.
Keywords: Literature; Women's Studies; Gender Studies; Cultural Studies; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Gender Studies

eBook

Published: August 30, 2019
ISBN: 9780812296273