This study of marriages made in Middle English romance argues that womens enthusiasm for marriage is largely a narrative fiction sustained by successive generations of sentimental readers. Literary scholars of romance who oppose the tendency of historians to exaggerate the lovelessness of dynastic medieval marriages have themselves been seduced by the affective discourse of desire. Freedom of choice can neither be inferred from nor equated with consent to marry. Womens wishes are ignored in the narratives, their legal rights infringed, their consent contrived. The study investigates the legal...
This study of marriages made in Middle English romance argues that womens enthusiasm for marriage is largely a narrative fiction sustained by successi...