Those men who are embracing toxic masculinity make themselves vulnerable since it’s so easy to deflate them. Lady Montagu pointed this out in an 18th century poem.
Tag Archives: Wife of Bath
A Woman 600 Years Ahead of Her Time
If Chaucer’s created a timeless and transcendent character in the Wife of Bath, it is because he listened–really listened–to women.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Christian misogyny, Defence of Poetry, Feminism, Geoffrey Chaucer, Harold Bloom, Percy Shelley, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Harris’s Laugh and the Wife of Bath
Kamala Harris’s big-hearted laugh puts her in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath territory. Trump is more like the Pardoner.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kamala Harris, Laughter, Pardoner Comments closed
St. Paul, St. Thecla, and the Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath threads between visions of marriage articulated by St. Paul. In the process, she articulates a far more spiritual vision than that propagated by misogynist monks of the period.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christian misogyny, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sexism, St. Paul Comments closed
Fantasy Frees Us from Narrow Thinking
Friday I share today a new insight that I gained from my recent Lifelong Learning class about “Wizards and Enchantresses.” To set it up, I first share my theory of fantasy. As I see it, fantasy is always oppositional in its invocation of magic and the supernatural. If it flourished in the wake of the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Enlightenment, fantasy, Fundamentalism, Geoffrey Chaucer, scientism Comments closed
Chaucer’s Friar and Abusive Clergy
Wednesday Like many, I had hopes that Pope Francis’s Vatican meeting on clergy sexual abuse would yield something substantial, and like many I have been disappointed. The pope, according to the New York Times, decided that the best way for the church to address the problem lay not in issuing an edict from Rome but […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Catholic Church, clergy sexual abuse, Friar's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer, Pope Francis Comments closed
How I Make Literary Connections
Wednesday A friend the other day asked where my ideas come from, especially when I apply a passage from one century to incidents in another. Yesterday, for instance, I said that Trump confidant Roger Stone reminded me of a passage in Herman Melville’s Confidence Man. So how did that enter my head? To answer, let […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged blogging, Confidence Man, Geoffrey Chaucer, Herman Melville, Restoration comedies, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Spirituality in Nature
John Gatta’s “Spirit of Place in American Literary Culture” explains why we find certain places, in nature and in civilization, to be infused with spirit.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aeneid, Denise Levertov, eco-criticism, Gary Snyder, Geoffrey Chaucer, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, sprit of place, Virgil Comments closed
