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The mother's mark: representations of maternal influence in Middle English popular romance

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TitleInfo
Title
The mother's mark: representations of maternal influence in Middle English popular romance
TitleInfo (type = alternative)
Title
Representations of maternal influence in Middle English popular romance
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Florschuetz
NamePart (type = given)
Angela L.
DisplayForm
Angela L. Florschuetz
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author
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Chism
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Christine
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Advisory Committee
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Christine N Chism
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chair
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Scanlon
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Larry
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Advisory Committee
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Larry Scanlon
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internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Klein
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Stacy
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Advisory Committee
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Stacy Klein
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internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Crane
NamePart (type = given)
Susan
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
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Susan Crane
Role
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outside member
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NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
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degree grantor
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NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
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school
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Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2007
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2007
Language
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English
PhysicalDescription
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electronic
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application/pdf
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text/xml
Extent
vi, 260 pages
Abstract
This dissertation investigates fourteenth- and fifteenth-century romances in English as they struggle with the complicated question of maternal influence, collectively constructed by intersecting, yet often contradictory discourses and interests. I argue that for Chaucer and the late medieval poets who wrote Octavian, Sir Gowther, and Melusine, the genre of the family romance proved particularly conducive to exploring the status of maternal influence and contribution in the context of these political, medical and religious contexts in their poems. In this project, I argue that not only is biological maternity and its significance interrogated in these romances, but that romance, especially the so-called "family romances" that gained in popularity in the later Middle Ages, with their narrativization of the vicissitudes of genealogy, offered poets an appropriate vehicle for meditating on the problems mothers posed to patriarchal genealogies--and, in some cases, the solutions they offered. Religious and medical texts often located maternal influence as a source of deviance, even monstrosity. Yet Octavian, Sir Gowther, Chaucer's Man of Law's and Clerk's Tales, and the Middle English Melusine undermine and critique paternal claims of maternal monstrosity or pollution as both untrue and ultimately dangerous to the genealogical project of reproducing the patrilineal dynasty. Modern scholarly discussions of medieval maternity tend to avoid the maternal body itself, identifying motherhood as a series of practices or identifying maternal images and metaphors as they were used by non-reproductive figures to describe their identities in other contexts. This project seeks to shift the register of an emerging conversation about medieval maternity to a more complicated level, one which acknowledges and references the complex and ambivalent social contexts in which maternal bodies and their influence were read and interpreted in the late Middle Ages. From the Octavian-poet, who acknowledges and refutes claims that the maternal body is a source of pollution, to the Melusine-poet's examination of the repercussions of recognizing and acknowledging maternal influence, late medieval poets approached the maternal body with profound ambivalence and an awareness of the social and religious stakes involved in representing that body and its significance to the community.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-259).
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Literatures in English
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Romances, English
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.15844
Identifier
ETD_439
Location
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3SB465X
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
AssociatedEntity (AUTHORITY = rulib); (ID = 1)
Name
Angela Florschuetz
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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Non-exclusive ETD license
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Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
RightsEvent (AUTHORITY = rulib); (ID = 2)
Type
Embargo
DateTime
2011-05-20
Detail
Access to this PDF has been restricted at the author's request. It will be publicly available after May 20, 2016.
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