Blameth Nat Me: Popular Resistance and Chaucer's Women in His Fabliaux

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to examine through Fiske s popular culture theory how Chaucer s women in his fabliaux as figures of resistance avert their inferiority and how they subvert their subordination to their empowerment through using the tactics, guileful ruses and artful stratagems of the weak with a detailed analysis of Chaucer s women and their relation to power in the Miller s Tale, the Reeve s Tale, the Merchant s Tale and the Shipman s Tale. It is argued that the adulterous, scheming and promiscuous women actually occupy a secondary position in the power struggle in the fabliaux. Thus, they are victims rather than victimizers and they contest their subjugation through their illicit sexual pursuits and subversive use of the domestic space. Chaucer s women in his fabliaux, thus, resist their subjugation in marriage using the resources of the dominant. Chaucer s women s resistance to the oppressive structures and norms are analysed in the context of John Fiske s popular culture