Ecofeminist Subjectivities Chaucer's Talking Birds

by Kordecki, Lesley

• ISBN13: 9780230115279
• ISBN10: 0230115276
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Ecofeminist Subjectivities: Chaucer's Talking Birdsanalyzes the interaction between gender and species in Chaucer's poetry and interprets his adaptation of medieval genres through an ecofeminist lens. His self-conscious experimentation with talking birds reveals both a curtailment and an expansion of narrative perspective. The projection of a nonhuman subjectivity in texts not only erodes the edges of human superiority, but also teaches us the power and evolutionary optimism of storytelling itself. This book traces how the human-defined medium of language and its complex interplay between the human and nonhuman exposes a more inclusive perspective of "reality" outside of human control.

Author Biography

Lesley Kordecki is a professor of English at DePaul University. She is the coauthor with Karla Koskinen of Re- Visioning Lear's Daughters: Testing Feminist Criticism and Theory.

Table of Contents

“For decades now Kordecki has been teaching us that Chaucer is also usefully understood as a, so to speak, ‘poet-avian,’ a writer instructed by, and who, in turn, shares with his readers, the beauty and the habits and the lore of those creatures, from one perspective, freest of all Nature’s creatures, birds, who soar above us, nest among us (and, yes, also besplatter our windshields), representing to us the very air of liberty as they also confront us, as they did Chaucer, with voices we hardly can merely ventriloquize—it is good now to have all of Kordecki's studies in one volume, that we can the better see how Chaucer developed his own voice in dialogue with Nature, the Mother of birds and humans alike.”—R. Allen Shoaf, editor emeritus, EXEMPLARIA

“Ecofeminist Subjectivities addresses a need for work that combines close reading with comprehensive knowledge of new theoretical work in ecocriticism, feminism, and critical animal studies. The analysis is both innovative and powerfully synthetic. The thesis is closely argued, timely, and ethically significant. The book shifts our perspective on major Chaucerian texts and opens the way for further studies that explore medieval representations of species.”—Carolynn Van Dyke, Francis A. March Professor of English, Lafayette College.