Alfred Thomas

Reading Women in Late Medieval Europe: Anne of Bohemia and Chaucer’s Female Audience - The New Middle Ages Alfred Thomas 1st ed. 2015 edition

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Critics have traditionally emphasized Geoffrey Chaucer's status as the Father of English Literature but in his own time he was more interested in becoming a great European writer. This book shows how Chaucer looked for inspiration not only to the great European male writers of his time (Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante) but also to a European woman--Queen Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II-- as his ideal patron and inspiration --; Provided by publisher. Biographical Note: Alfred Thomas is Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. He has published eight books, including, Anne's Bohemia: Czech Literature and Society (1310-1420); A Blessed Shore: England and Bohemia from Chaucer to Shakespeare; Prague Palimpsest: Writing, Memory, and the City; and Shakespeare, Dissent, and the Cold War. Table of Contents: Introduction1. Devotional Texts for Royal Princesses in Late Medieval Bohemia2. Writing Jews, Writing Women: "The Prioress's Tale" and the Sacred Drama of Medieval Europe3. The Lady as Saint: "The Second Nun's Tale," Pearl, and the Czech Life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria4. Dangerous Amazons: Sexual and Textual Rivalry in "The Knight's Tale" and The Dalimil Chronicle5. Powerful Wives and Captive Knights: "The Wife of Bath's Tale," Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the Czech Chivalric Romances6. Women Defended, Women Defamed: The Legend of Good Women, The Plowman from Bohemia, and The Little WeaverConclusionPublisher Marketing: Geoffrey Chaucer has traditionally been seen as indebted to the great male writers of medieval Europe: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch and Guillaume de Machaut. However, little has been written about the European woman who was Queen of England and his possible patron: Anne of Bohemia, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and wife of Richard II. Although Chaucer explicitly compliments the Queen in his work, scholars have been reluctant or unable to engage seriously with the question of her role in Chaucer's oeuvre. This book shows that Anne came from a long line of highly educated and multilingual royal women and he book rereads some of the famous stories from the Canterbury Tales alongside contemporaneous works in Czech, German, and Latin - languages with which the Queen was familiar. Alfred Thomas argues that even if she did not literally commission any of his works, Chaucer seems to have been writing for Anne as an imagined reader and this awareness shaped the way he wrote and what he chose to write.

Contributor Bio:  Thomas, Alfred Alfred Thomas is currently an associate professor of collision repair at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport Pennsylvania. He is also a contributing editor for "Auto Body Repair News," a monthly collision repair technical journal. Mr. Thomas is a master certified collision repair refinishing technician, and an I-CAR platinum technician. His educational background includes a Masters of Arts degree from Eastern Michigan University, a Bachelor of Science degree from Trevecca Nazarene University, and an Associate of Arts degree from Washtenaw Community College.