Chaucer’s Orient:Medieval Orientalism?

The World According to The Wife of Bath?

God helpe me so, I was to hym as kyndeAs any wyf from Denmark unto Ynde

(WBPro 823-24)

Betwixt this and the mount of Kaukasous

(WBT 1140)

That is betwixe the est and eke the west

(WBT 1140)

“Auffrike, Europe, and asye,” (House of Fame 1339)

Mappa Mundi

The Lambeth Map(1350-70)

Tripartite or T-O map

‘paradysus’

Jerusalem

East meets West during the Middle Ages

Three Primary Points of Contact

Trade

Pilgrimage

The Crusades

The Crusades•Third Crusade 1188: England

involved

•Crusades “ended” in 1272

• Individual crusades continued during Chaucer’s lifetime

Crusading RomancesPromoted the idea of Western/

Christian superiority over the

Eastern/Muslim (pagan)

world through either…

•the conversion of Islamic knights•the destruction of Arabian armies

One of these texts, the popular

Sir Beues, was known to Chaucer

as he apparently imitated the meter

Chaucer Mapping the Crusades

• “Alisaundre,” in Egypt• “Lyeys,” in Turkey Knight’s

• “Palatye” in Anatolia campaigning

• Surrye (Syria) - first lines of the Man of Law’s Tale

• the Holy Land – origin of the relic mentioned in the Reeve’s Tale

East-West TradeEuropean Trade with the East • Normans in Italy & First Crusade• Successful until 15th century

Chaucer’s Family & Community

Chaucer’s Travels in Europe• France, Spain, Italy• Indirectly affected by Boccaccio’s perceptions

Exchange of Knowledge & Chaucer

Eastern Literature • 1001 Nights: frame structure (Tales, Decameron)• Squire’s Prologue &Tale

Medicine Doctor of Physik:

“Wel knew he the olde […]

Haly, Razis, and Aycen” (GP 31-2)

Astronomy/Astrology• Treatise on Astrolabe• Franklin’s Tale

Medieval Orientalism

Travel Literature• Jehan de Mandeville

• Marco Polo

French Romances • Cléomadès Cycle (Adenès le Rois) Squire’s

• Méliacin (Girard d’Amiens) Tale

Boccaccio

“Domesticating the Exotic” & Oriental Eroticism

Squire’s Tale

• Eastern setting & details

• European characters & romance Legend of Good Women: Cleo & Dido

• Boccaccio as sources for both

• Sexually excessive characterization but…

• Chaucer is less malicious, more ambiguous

Works Cited/ConsultedChaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D.

Benson. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1987.

Ganim, John M. Medievalism and Orientalism.

Heffernan, Carol F. The Orient in Chaucer and Medieval Romance. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer, 2003.

Lynch, Kathryn L. Chaucer’s Cultural Geography. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Metlitzki, Dorothee. The Matter of Araby in Medieval England. New Haven: Yale UP, 1977.

Westrem, Scott D. “Geography and Travel.”A Companion to Chaucer. Ed. Peter Brown. Malden: Blackwell, 2007.