Abjection of Women and Womanhood in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is examining the adverse representations of women and womanhood in “Book I: The Legend of the Knight of the Redcrosse, or Holinesse,” “Book II: The Legend of Sir Guyon, or of Temperaunce,” and “Book III: The Legend of Britomartis, or of Chastity” in Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1590 96) from the perspective of Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, established in Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1982). In an unorthodox amalgamation of epic poetry, moral allegory, and med ieval romance, Spenser creates a plethora of women characters and personifications in a binary opposition of morality, most of whom are represented by the virtues and vices. The narrative is constructed as a progression of physical and spiritual battles be tween morality and immorality, and by the victory of moral characters and personifications, Spenser conveys his didactic messages. In the light of Spenser’s nationalism, this thesis argues that in “Book I,” “Book II,” and “Book III” of The Faerie Queene , w omen, who threaten the representations of Elizabeth I, The Kingdom of England, and Protestantism are labelled as evil, and these women can be classified as mothers and “whores.” Both productive and non productive sexual actions of evil women are represente d as odious, unnatural, and villainous, unravelling the moral fabric of England. This thesis refers to theory of abjection to analyse the representations of such women , by concentrating on the form of these women . The argument connecting Spenser and Kriste va is, Spenser’s portrayals of evilness of women are created in accordance with Neoplatonism. In Neoplatonism, a person’s physical appearance is an expression of inward spiritual condition. Spenser follows the Neoplatonism in The Faerie Queene , and the debasing physical and non physical descriptions of evil women focus on the body, which is represented as disgusting. This thesis analyses Spenser’s The Faerie Queene from the perspective of abjection and argues that Spenser represents evil women as abject, an d through their destruction, the author purges evil qualities from any association with Elizabeth I, the Kingdom of England, and Protestantism.