Gower and Gender.

Author/Editor
Bullón-Fernández, María.

Title
Gower and Gender.

Published
Bullón-Fernández, María. "Gower and Gender." In Ana Sáez-Hidalgo, Brian Gastle, and R. F. Yeager, eds. The Routledge Research Companion to John Gower (Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 21-36.

Review
Bullón-Fernández explicates the two foundational traditions in scholarship on Gower and gender, one claiming he is notably respectful to women, especially in the CA (22-23), and one finding women characters as misogynistically portrayed and marginalized to the "larger" concerns of men (23). Among her many examples of scholarship engaged with this complexity, Bullón-Fernández notes how rape in the CA is always the fault of the male (24), yet somehow gendered "effeminat" (25-26). She describes the manuscripts of the CA apparently commissioned by women and reflecting their influence (29), before calling for more research on the much less woman-friendly French and Latin poems (32-33). [LBB. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 37.2.]

Date
2017

Gower Subjects
Backgrounds and General Criticism
Confessio Amantis