中世紀關於女性的書寫常將女性歸入兩種極端的類型，不是天使，就是怪物，此兩個極端的形象一直是西方文學中女性的原型。因此，本文旨在探討喬叟在巴斯婦的序言與故事中如何處理中世紀晚期的女性再現，並解釋喬叟如何藉由創造超越傳統性別再現的角色而成功地避開此一刻板化的女性形象描繪。第一章指出，喬叟發現中世紀社會中的女性再現被簡化成兩種極端，因而試圖創造出能超越此傳統女性形象的角色。因此，喬叟以巴斯婦的個人婚姻經驗取代傳統女性再現權威。他將巴斯婦置於中世紀晚期的中產階級社會，使得巴斯婦成為一位富裕的中產階級布商，其個體的複雜性和差異性讓她無法被任何書寫權威所簡化。第二章指出巴斯婦的故事是一個實現願望的幻想(fantasy)，其糾正了中世紀晚期浪漫傳奇中的性別再現。典型的浪漫傳奇強調並固化傳統性別角色。藉由比較高爾(John Gower)的典型浪漫傳奇：《弗洛杭的故事》，與巴斯婦扭曲的亞瑟王主題，我們可以清楚地看出巴斯婦的故事是一個反浪漫傳奇，其顛覆了傳統的性別角色再現。喬叟在巴斯婦的序言和巴斯婦的故事結尾所告訴我們的是，唯有顛覆傳統的性別再現，基於彼此相愛與尊重，而非控制與支配的兩性關係才有可能出現。換句話說，唯有推翻以性別階級為特徵的傳統性別再現，和諧的婚姻關係才能被實現。

Medieval writings about women are notoriously polarized in that they reduce women to two extremes, either angels or monsters. This thesis, therefore, considers how Chaucer confronts the problematic late-medieval representation of women in Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, and attempts to show how Chaucer successfully avoids the same stereotypical
representation by creating characters that are able to go beyond the traditional gender representation. Chapter one argues that since Chaucer finds the portrayal of women in his society to be problematic, he situates Alisoun within the late-middle bourgeois society in
order to make Alisoun an individual whose complexity and difference render it impossible to reduce her to the essentialist representation of women by any written “auctoritee” (III.1). Chapter two argues that Alisoun’s tale is a wish-fulfillment fantasy that serves to correct
traditional gender representation, in Alisoun’s society. By comparing John Gower’s standard romance, “The Tale of Florent,” with Alisoun’s distorted Arthurian theme, we can clearly see how Alisoun’s Tale is an anti-romance that turns traditional gender roles upside down. What Chaucer shows us at the end of both Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale is that only by overthrowing the traditional gender representation can new gender relationship based on mutual love and surrender rather than control and dominance be brought about. Marital harmony, in other words, can be achieved only after gender hierarchy that so much characterizes traditional gender representation is done away with.

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